MONROE — The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association released a proposed conference realignment for WIAA football on Monday that would affect nearly the entire state.
Under the proposed plan Monroe, Brodhead-Juda, Pecatonica-Argyle, and New Glarus-Monticello would be affected. Darlington, Evansville-Albany and Black Hawk (by then Black Hawk-Warren) would get to stay in their home conference.
The proposal, which was presented to the WIAA and won’t be voted on until later this year and wouldn’t take affect until 2020, would move about 18 percent of schools to new conferences just for football. The plan is the first major proposed shakeup since the failed District Plan of 2009.
“There is still two years left for this cookie to crumble,” Monroe head coach Toby Golembiewski said. “Some people are afraid of change, and other people welcome change. I think this one is positive.”
The WFCA and WIAA would move multiple schools out of their current conference to better suit the path to the playoffs. Currently, there are conferences with as many as 11 teams for a nine-game regular season, while others have just five. There are also conferences where certain teams have either a much higher or lower enrollment than the rest of the schools. The proposal would shrink conferences to either eight or possibly seven teams of similar enrollment, with seven conference games in the regular season occurring in weeks 3-9, allowing for two non-conference games.
In the case of a seven-team league, a sister league would be created along side in which one week would serve as a crossover game for conference standing purposes.
Playoff qualifying wouldn’t change, as all teams with a 4-3 conference record would automatically qualify.
The WIAA has been looking at revamping its regular season football structure that would create a semblance of uniformity between all seven divisions and every conference in the state.
“I think the WFCA’s heart is in the right place,” Black Hawk coach Cory Milz said. “They are trying to get parity within the conferences and match enrollment as best they can. The competitive equity component is a great thing.”
In a 2017 WFCA survey, 65 percent of responding schools favored realignment.
“I think about 75 percent of schools will be happy with this,” Milz said. “I know Black Hawk is satisfied with it. But I think you’re going to have 25 percent that will be really upset with their travel times — like for example Cambridge having to travel to play these teams in the SWAL.”
The proposed plan would allow schools to request a review of their placement in a designated conference based on a two-year cycle, due by February 1 on every odd year. The request could be to change conferences based on enrollment trends, student population or travel issues — but not based on win-loss ability. Procedures would also be in place to replace teams that drop a program either by joining another school in a co-op, moving to 8-man football like Shullsburg, or potentially dropping its football program entirely. There is also a procedure in place in case a school adds a team. The WIAA would have final authority to change or adjust the plan at any time.
“I think you’re going to see some school boards and administrations appeal this. There are going to be some schools that will be quite vocal against this,” Milz said.
According to Travis Wilson, general manager of Wisconsin Sports Network, the WFCA ad hoc committee went through more than a dozen formal drafts of the conference assignments and other options. Wilson, a member of the WFCA ad hoc committee, said in a post on WisSports.net the group has been working on the proposal for the last seven months.
If implemented, Monroe (enrollment 690) and Madison Edgewood (486) would move out of the Badger South and into the Rock Valley, replacing Brodhead-Juda (413) and Clinton (342), as well as Big Foot (499) and Beloit Turner (451), which would move to the Capitol 2. The Capitol 2 would also consist of Lodi, Lake Mills, Columbus and Lakeside Lutheran.
“If you look at enrollment you have definitely flipped the table on where Monroe stands,” Golembiewski said. “We’re now the second smallest team in the Badger Conference, and we would be the second largest in the new Rock Valley.”
New Glarus-Monticello (360) would potentially move from the Capitol South into the Southwest Conference, joining Lancaster, Platteville and Dodgeville among others.
Pecatonica-Argyle would look to move out of the Six Rivers and join Belleville and Cambridge (both formerly Capitol members) in the re-vamped SWAL with Darlington, Mineral Point, Cuba City and Fennimore.
“The Six Rivers and the SWAL and a couple other southwestern Wisconsin conferences really kind of started this competitive equity talk a couple of years ago,” Milz said.
Black Hawk-Warren and the Six Rivers would welcome Iowa-Grant and Southwestern.
As it stands, Southwestern and Boscobel are already set to join the Six Rivers in 2019 while Belmont and Highland look to make a move to the Ridge and Valley Conference.
“We’re going to look different in 2019, whether that lasts one year or not,” Milz said of the Six Rivers.
Milz said that should the proposal go through, one of the non-conference slots Black Hawk would try to fill would be with Pecatonica-Argyle, the Warriors’ top rival dating back several decades.
“I think that would be a priority for Black Hawk for sure — to maintain one of our last Stateline League opponents,” Milz said. “We were the Stateline League in the 70s and the 80s, and Pecatonica is the only holdover with Black Hawk in that old conference. We would try to do everything we can with Pec to keep that rivalry alive.”
