STEVENS POINT — The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) performance factor initiative has advanced through the process for the third time with a review of the spring sports for implementation in 2024-25.
An ad hoc committee consisting of 11 superintendents/district administrators, six athletic directors, one principal and one principal/athletic director proposed the performance factor process, which was approved by a 265-115 membership vote at the 2023 Annual Meeting for implementation in 2024-25. The initiative promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period.
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 advancement 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.
This new initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move down a division with lower enrollments. The Classification Committee reviewed seven such requests for spring sports, including three for baseball, two for softball, and one each in girls soccer and boys tennis. Two of those requests were approved in baseball, and one softball, girls soccer and boys tennis.
The spring school sports programs that have accumulated at least six points to engage a promotion to a division with higher enrollments — if their 2024-25 tournament placement enrollment doesn’t initially move them up a division — are listed below:
Baseball (3)
● Aquinas
● Denmark
● St. Croix Falls
Boys Golf (11)
● Amery
● Cambridge
● Eau Claire Memorial
● Edgerton
● Edgewood
● Kettle Moraine
● Marquette
● Mineral Point
● Sheboygan North
● Waunakee
● Winneconne
Girls Soccer (10)
● Cedar Grove-Belgium
● Cedarburg
● Divine Savior Holy Angels
● Kiel
● Muskego
● New Berlin Eisenhower
● Oregon
● Plymouth
● The Prairie School
● Whitefish Bay
Softball (9)
● Assumption
● Brodhead
● Fall Creek
● Freedom
● Grantsburg
● Iola-Scandinavia
● Kaukauna
● Oakfield
● Pacelli
Boys Tennis (4)
● Aquinas
● Brookfield Academy
● Brookfield Central
● Marquette
Note that programs reaching the performance points threshold to be promoted and are initially assigned to a lower enrollment division — based on their 2024-25 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 37 programs listed above that compiled the threshold of points to engage in a promotion, 10 appeals were submitted, including Brodhead softball. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these with one approval. Brodhead softball was denied. It is also noteworthy that 10 of the 37 programs that achieved the six-point threshold competed in Division 1 in 2024 and will be promoted only if their enrollment places them in a division with lower enrollments.
The WIAA competitive balance initiative completed its first full year of applying the performance factor for division placements, which will begin with the 2024-25 sports seasons.
The Classification Committee assembled to discuss and review the performance factor process and criteria in July. The committee recommended no changes to the process or criteria, citing results of performance factor couldn’t be appropriately evaluated until competition results are recorded to fully determine its impact.
The number of sports programs that have accumulated at least six points to engage a promotion to a division with higher enrollments–if their 2024-25 tournament placement enrollment doesn’t initially move them up a division — was 136 this year. It is noteworthy that 45 of those programs that achieved the six-point threshold competed in Division 1 in 2023-24 and will be promoted only if their enrollment places them in a division with lower enrollments.
This performance factor initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move down a division with lower enrollments. The Classification Committee reviewed 46 such requests in 2023-24. Eighteen of those requests were approved.
The performance factor process also affords schools the opportunity to appeal their promotion to the division with the next largest enrollments based on performance points. Of the 136 programs reaching the three-year, six-point threshold in all respective sports in 2023-24 resulting in a promotion, 46 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these appeals with three approvals, including Monticello-Albany girls basketball.
