The Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) has rejected a proposal to make esports an officially sanctioned UIL sport for the fifth time.

The proposal was presented by members of the Texas Scholastic Esports Federation (TexSEF), a nonprofit organization of Texas teachers and educators that organizes weekly online leagues and in-person tournaments, at the UIL’s Legislative Council Meeting in Austin.

It would have gone into effect this upcoming school year.

While the proposal was denied, the UIL told The Dallas Express in an email, “The standing committee on policy authorized UIL staff to study the proposal to add eSports as a UIL-sanctioned activity. As a result, staff will continue to gauge interest in the activity for future consideration.”

“That’s fine with us because that’s what we do,” Danielle Johnson, executive director of TexSEF, told The Dallas Express. “We provide esports for schools. While we love running it, if UIL was going to move forward with this, we wouldn’t work against them or try to compete for schools to play with us versus them.”

“In Texas, we have a lot of really great nonprofit organizations that do stuff with schools that are not UIL approved, sanctioned activities, but it’s something schools compete in, and it’s still a valid competition that provides students an opportunity to shine, make friends, and connect with other adults that can help them in their lives.”

The decision means the UIL will not offer its service to schools for esports, and the activity will continue to be governed by smaller organizations, like TexSEF.

“UIL can do that faster than us, but this gives us another year and another opportunity to grow and make our league bigger,” Johnson added.

According to Fox 4 KDFW, there are more than 200 high school esports programs across Texas, and the number is expected to grow.

“We have seen incredible interest in in-person esports tournaments and online competitions from teachers all over Texas,” Johnson said. “A lot of times, it’s a gamer that is a teacher and starts the team or club at their school, but many times, it’s students that know this exists and want to start a team.”

TexSEF has been organizing tournaments for the past four years and recently held its first state championship. It featured schools competing for titles in five games: Rocket League, League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Valorant, and Overwatch 2. Prosper, Richardson, Hebron, and Robert Vela, and Clear Springs high schools won.

“We had 550 students from 61 schools all over the state,” Johnson told The Dallas Express. “We had [teams from places like] the Rio Grande Valley and Texline, so schools from everywhere in the state that came, and we’re seeing that there’s always demand for it.”

The organization’s primary goal is to make esports available to any student in the state who wants to participate. In the next year, TexSEF hopes to make in-person tournaments more available within reasonable driving distance of every school in Texas.

“Every area where there’s not one within about two hours of every high school, we’re going to put one on,” Johnson told The Dallas Express. “We are just going to be all over the state next year. It’s going to be a great year.”