STEVENS POINT — The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Classification Committee conducted hearings for member school requests and appeals in applying the performance factor initiative for the winter sports with implementation during the 2025-26 seasons.

This initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move to a division with lower or higher enrollments for all sports. The Classification Committee reviewed 16 such requests for winter sports. Four of the requests were to move up a division for the 2025-26 Tournament Series, including three in boys hockey (Edgewood, Superior and University School of Milwaukee) and one in boys basketball (West Allis Hale). All four requests were approved. The remaining 12 requests were to move down for the 2025-26 Tournament Series, including five in boys basketball (Ashland, Green Bay East, Riverdale, Sevastopol and Sheboygan South), four in girls basketball (Ashland, Riverdale, Sheboygan South and Green Bay East), and three in boys hockey (Ashland, Barron and Medford). The committee approved all the requests to move down one division.

School programs reaching the six-point performance factor threshold during the past three seasons are placed in the division containing the next largest set of enrollments from where the schools’ enrollments would place them for each respective sport other than track & field and swimming & diving — which do not have a team component to advancing in the Tournament Series — and sports with only one division. Schools are restricted to moving up a maximum of one division from the previous year’s placement. 

The school sports programs that have accumulated at least six points to engage a promotion one division higher than their enrollment would place them in 2025-26 are listed below. Note that programs that meet the performance points threshold to be promoted and are initially assigned to a lower enrollment division — based on their 2025-26 tournament assignment enrollments — will be promoted back into the division they competed in during the most recent season’s Tournament Series.

The performance factor process affords schools the opportunity to appeal their promotion to the division with the next largest enrollments based on performance points. Of the 33 programs listed above that compiled points to engage their promotion, 12 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee evaluated six appeals in girls basketball (Albany/Monticello, Cuba City, Laconia, Notre Dame, Pewaukee and Wauwatosa East), three in boys basketball (Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic, Pewaukee and West Salem), two in gymnastics (Elkhorn and West Salem), and one in boys hockey (Tomahawk). There were no approvals of appeals for the programs moving up a division based on the performance factor.

The Classification Committee consists of nine athletic directors, two principals and seven superintendents. The Competitive Balance Performance Factor was approved by a 265-115 membership vote at the 2023 Annual Meeting and was implemented for the first time in 2024-25.

The WIAA will release the Tournament Series assignments for all 2025-26 winter sports later this spring. For more on the performance factor process, visit the Competitive Balance homepage on the WIAA website.