MONROE — The first WIAA Conference Realignment Task Force meeting for the 2022-23 cycle announced Dec. 9 in support of advancing several proposals for football-related realignments.

This past fall was supposed to be the first year of the state-wide football conference realignment, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw the plans into a slushie machine. The task force is running conference alignments in two-year increments, and there were 18 schools that initially requested new realignments for the 2022 season. In all, 21 conferences of 11-man football would see an adjustment.

Several schools are switching from 11-man football to 8-man, while multiple smaller, private schools will cease to sponsor football. Perhaps the biggest change comes from Sun Prairie’s upcoming split into two high schools — Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West. Currently, Sun Prairie plays in the Big Eight with other Madison-area Division 1 schools, but by splitting the two, the enrollments will be cut. The new Sun Prairie schools would cause a chain reaction by leaving the Big 8 for the Badger Large, which would bump out multiple schools.

Monroe is set to play in the Rock Valley, and under the current proposals, the league would see one change: Madison Edgewood would be out and join the Capitol Conference, while Delavan-Darien would move in from the Southern Lakes Conference. Monroe and Edgewood have been in the same conference since the private-school league WISAA merged with the WIAA in 2000.

Other are conferences would also be impacted. With De Soto moving to 8-man and leaving the Ridge & Valley, Iowa-Grant would bolt the Six Rivers to take its place. To balance into two seven-team conferences, the SWC would bring Lancaster back from the SWAL, with New Glarus-Monticello moving from the SWC back into the Capitol, with Horicon/Hustisford’s planned to move to the Eastern Suburban. The Six Rivers Conference would be just a six-team conference and would play two crossover games with the SWAL instead of the previously planned one game.

Each of the plans will be reviewed at a Jan. 6 meeting, with the WIAA Board of Control eligible to grant final approval as early as Jan. 27.