STEVENS POINT — The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) approved multiple measures that will change the course of high school sports around the state in the coming years at the 127th Annual Meeting in Stevens Point.
The first came on Tuesday, when the WIAA approved its football-only realignment plans and winter co-ops, beginning with the 2024-25 school year. The following day, the WIAA passed a much-deliberated competitive balance proposal and conducted other membership business.
The football realignment effects multiple local schools. Brodhead-Juda will stay in the SWC instead of moving to the Capitol Conference. Parkview-Albany will move out of the SWAL to the Trailways. Joining Darlington and New Glarus in the SWAL will be Southwestern-East Dubuque and Madison St. Ambrose/Country Day.
The entire football-only conference realignment plan will be implemented in the Fall of 2024. The complete details of the remanded and approved conference configurations for both 11-player and 8-player football, and more information on the conference realignment process are available on the Conference Realignment page of the WIAA website. Access the page by clicking on the “Conference Realignment” link within the “Schools” megamenu.
The next day, after a presentation by Jordan Sinz and Michelle Guyant-Holloway, co-chairs of the Competitive Balance Task Force, the membership voted 265-115 to approve the Competitive Balance Plan intended to help ensure all members feel their school has an opportunity to be competitive in the Tournament Series.
The plan, to be implemented in 2024-25, promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period. School programs will be placed in the division with the next largest enrollments from where the schools’ enrollment would typically place them for each respective sport — other than track & field and swimming & diving. Schools will be restricted to moving up only one division from the previous year’s placement. The plan affords schools the process to appeal their placement if they are moved up a division as well as an option to petition to be placed in a lower division in all sports except football and the sports not impacted by the point system. Complete details of the Competitive Balance Plan are available on the Competitive Balance homepage of the WIAA website.
The new system will include a Tournament Performance Factor, which assigns points to each team based on their postseason success over a rolling 3-year period. Once that threshold is reached, the team will move up a division, similar to a promotion/relegation system used in professional sports leagues across the globe. The second part of the plan clarifies how teams will then move down a division to replace the promoted team.
The point structure for bracketed postseasons (baseball, basketball, football, hockey, softball, soccer, volleyball) will look like this:
● State champions: 4 points
● State runner-up: 3 points
● State/semifinal qualifier: 2 points
● Sectional/quarterfinal qualifier: 1 point
A team will move up once they have accumulated 6 points during a three-year period. The start of the 3-year running period is retroactive to the 2021-22 school year. The performance factor will be calculated after each season and applied on a sport by sport basis.
Because of Monroe’s success in football in recent seasons — a state title in 2022 (4 pts) and a semifinal appearance in 2021 (2 pts) — the Cheesemakers will be moved up for both the 2024 and 2025 football playoffs, should they reach the postseason. If they reach Level 3 (1 pt) in either of those two years, the Cheesemakers will stay in Division 2 for 2026.
On the other side, Albany girls basketball reached the sectional final in in 2022 (1-point), and lost in the state semifinal final game this past March (2 points). With just three points the Comets will remain in Division 5 when the implementation system begins in 2024-25.
In volleyball, Monticello would stay in Division 4, having accumulated five points during their past two seasons, reaching the state semifinal in 2021 and the championship in 2022. McDonnell Central, which won the title both years, would be moving up to Division 3. Howards Grove, back-to-back reigning Division 3 champions, will be in Division 2.
Non-bracketed sports, like cross country, golf and tennis will have their point totals calculated differently.
Three other amendments were approved by the assembly, effective in 2023-24. An amendment to the Bylaws will permit the most-recently-defeated opponent to return to the Tournament Series to replace a team that advances but is unable to continue participation in the tournament for any reason. The amendment passed by a 371-10 vote.
The two other amendments passed affect the membership’s Rules of Eligibility. The first affords a senior, who transfers without a full family move, the opportunity to participate at the non-varsity level. The members approved the amendment by a 354-27 count. The second permits a coach at any level to have coaching contact with incoming ninth graders until the first day of fall practices or the first day of school, whichever comes first. The membership supported the rule change with a 373-8 vote.
A total of 446 representatives from 381 schools attended the meeting. The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 517 senior high schools and 45 junior high/middle level schools in its membership.
