The annual Texas 7-on-7 State Championship Tournament will take place on the Texas A&M campus in College Station this weekend. For the second year in a row, there will be one tournament for small schools that are Class 3A and under and another for Class 4A and 5A teams.
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The action kicks off on Thursday at 1 p.m. with all 32 teams in the small-school field starting pool play at the same time. It will be a round robin format with eight separate pools of four teams, all playing three games. In the small-school tourney, every team advances to the winner's bracket, seeded based on pool play finish. The first round of the single elimination tournament is Thursday at 5 p.m. with the 16 winners coming back the next morning to continue. The championship will be held on Kyle Field at noon.
That is when things start to get just a little bit more hectic. The large schools start play at 1 p.m. on Friday. However, with a 64-team field, only half can play at a time. Eight of the pools will play at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. while the other eight will play at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.
Unlike the small-school field, the large schools will fall into either the winners' of the consolation bracket. The top two teams in each pool of four advance to the winners' brackets with the bottom two teams advancing to the consolation one. Single elimination tourney play begins Saturday at 8 a.m. The consolation final will be held on Kyle Field at 4:00 p.m. with the championship game also scheduled for Kyle at 5:00 p.m.
With the basic format out of the way, it is always fun to try and catch as many prospects in person as possible. All games are held at the Penberthy Intramural fields. With each game consisting of two 20-minute halves and a 10-minute halftime, it is possible to see quite a few different schools all in one day. Each 100-yard field also has two games going on at the same time, so standing on one sideline will give you the opportunity to see four teams at once.
With that in mind, here is a basic guide to A&M targets and commitments in the 96-team field. We have also listed other top recruits as it is usually fun to see players that Ags will be facing off against in the next few years. Throughout the week, we will break down the pools after they are posted and give you a guide to see as many top prospects as possible.