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Respectfully, they aren’t in the same district then. Maybe in the same geographic area, or district zoning area. But 2 teams that would not play for the same championship are simply not in the same district unless your state uses ridiculously dumb terminology that’s not universally accepted.

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Until a few years ago, Texas would place the playoff qualifiers from each 6A district into 2 divisions based on enrollment size.
Texas has since changed the rules, and now there’s no way that 2 teams from the same district can both win state.

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They divide the state into a north/south scene. In the playoffs, there are 2 different 6A state champions, 2 5A champions, and so forth.

My kids currently play high school football in Texas, so I'm well versed on how it works including the playoffs.

Mostly no to the above. There's no north/south in football. There are four regions. Two teams from the same district can still both win state (in 6A), which is what happened with DeSoto and Duncanville in 2023. It's not a zoning area. It's literally the same district.

Here's how Texas has it set up for the regular season.

There are six conferences (sometimes called classes) labeled 1A through 6A. Schools are placed in a conference based on student population size with 1A the smallest. Conference 1A though 5A further divide into Division 1 and 2. Placement into a division within a conference is also based on student population size with Division 1 being larger. Conference 6A does not divide into divisions for the regular season. Each conference has four regions. Each region has an equal number of districts. However, not all districts are the same size. Teams play everyone in their district plus a few non-district games to make a complete regular season. Each district is small enough to round robin every other program, but this means some schools have to schedule more non-district games.

Here's a few examples of the 2023 alignment since that's the season in question.
* Conference 2A Division 1
* Conference 2A Division 2
* Conference 6A <--- Note District 11 with both DeSoto and Duncanville.

Now on to the playoffs.

In Conference 1A, the two teams with the best district records advance to the playoffs. In Conference 2A through Conference 6A, the four teams with the best district records advance to the playoffs. It's easy to follow in 1A through 5A since divisions already exist from the regular season. Teams go from their regular season conference-division to the same playoff conference-division bracket. For example, the four advancing teams from Conference 2A District 1 go into the Conference 2A District 1 playoff bracket. The four advancing teams from Conference 2A District 2 go into the Conference 2A District 2 playoff bracket. See here from 2023.
* Conference 2A Division 1 Playoff Bracket
* Conference 2A Division 2 Playoff Bracket

So far, no two teams from the same district can both win state, but now let's move on to Conference 6A.

Recall that 6A didn't do regular season divisions. They do introduce divisions for the playoffs, which is where it gets wildly confusing. Two of the four district teams advancing to the playoffs go to the Conference 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket and two go to the Conference 2A Division 2 Playoff Bracket. The determining factor deciding which division playoff bracket to enter has NOTHING to do with district record, district standings, overall record, or a playoff committee's thoughts. It solely comes down to student population size. The two programs with larger student bodies go to Conference 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket. The two with smaller student bodies go to the Conference 6A Division 2 Playoff Bracket. This means the largest school in a district will always enter the 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket, and the smallest school will always enter the 6A Division 2 Playoff Bracket. Schools with student populations in the middle will enter the 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket some seasons and the 6A Division 2 Playoff Bracket other seasons, depending on which three other district peers became playoff eligible.

In 2023, Conference 6A District 11's standings were

Standings Source
DeSoto, Duncanville, Waxahachie, and Cedar Hill made the 6A playoffs thanks to their district records.
Duncanville and Waxahachie have larger student populations than DeSoto and Ceder Hill. Therefore, Duncanville and Waxahachie entered the 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket while DeSoto and Ceder Hill entered the 6A Division 2 Playoff Bracket.

Here are the playoff results, ending with Duncanville and DeSoto both winning state.
* Conference 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket
* Conference 6A Division 1 Playoff Bracket

Odd that Dave Campbell's Texas Football didn't bother updating the last scores, but it's easy to verify.

Duncanville dominates rival North Shore for back-to-back 6A Division I State Titles from December 16, 2023

DeSoto demolishes Summer Creek to claim back-to-back 6A Division II state titles from December 16, 2023

This post was edited on 8/23/26 at 2:24 pm