WFCA Exploring New Football Playoff Plan

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) notified its members that the group is exploring a plan that would change how the WIAA football playoffs work for qualification, division assignment, regional groupings, and seeding.

The proposal comes in response to increased frustrations and concerns from coaches regarding playoff-related matters in recent seasons, including controversies around this year's playoff qualifiers, how the regional groupings are determined, and what many feel were inconsistent or incorrect seeds for several teams.

The WFCA's proposal, dubbed the Wisconsin Football Playoff Matrix, would be modeled after the system that has been utilized in Ohio for many years.

It is important to note that the plan would NOT make changes to conferences, the realignment process, season length or start date, game maximums, the number of qualifiers, or the number of divisions for 11-player football. The WIAA's Tournament Performance Factor points system would still apply.

Developed by Andy LaVoy and Jesse Norris of Edgewood High School in collaboration with the WFCA Executive Board, the system, "introduces what we feel to be a fair, data-driven approach to high school football playoffs, designed to ensure transparency, limits travel impacts, and provides consistency."

Among the key components of the plan is the identification of playoff division assignments before the postseason begins, similar to other sports. The teams competing in 11-player football would be equally distributed across the seven divisions, with any remaining teams added to the larger divisions on down.

Playoff qualifying would be done within each division, instead of first determining 224 qualifiers and then assigning to divisions.

A points system would be used for each win a team accumulates during the season. More points would be assigned for wins against higher-division opponents (see methodology below). This is considered the Tier 1 Points. In addition, the points for each opponent that a team defeats would be added up to determine the Tier 2 Points. 

The Tier 2 Points total would then be divided by the total games played for a team's opponents, and multiplied by 10. The Tier 1 Point total and adjusted Tier 2 Point total would then be added together to determine a team's Total Points.

The Total Points would be used for both playoff qualification and seeding within each region.

The WFCA has developed a video outlining the plan in additional detail, and can be viewed here.

A website has been created to show the results of this proposal on the 2024 playoffs, including the revised divisions, qualifiers, groups, and seeds. Information is also available for application to the 2023 and 2022 seasons, for additional data and understanding. Please click here for that information.

Tier 1 POINTS are awarded for each win:

• Win over a DIVISION 1 school - 6.5 POINTS 
• Win over a DIVISION 2 school - 6.0 POINTS 
• Win over a DIVISION 3 school - 5.5 POINTS 
• Win over a DIVISION 4 school - 5.0 POINTS 
• Win over a DIVISION 5 school - 4.5 POINTS 
• Win over a DIVISION 6 school - 4.0 POINTS
• Win over a DIVISION 7 school - 3.5 POINTS 

The steps to calculate a team’s TOTAL are as follows:

1. Calculate Tier 1 POINTS for each win.
2. Divide by the number of games played to get the Tier 1 SCORE.
3. Calculate Tier 2 POINTS as the total of defeated opponents’ Tier 1 POINTS.
4. Divide Tier 2 POINTS by opponents’ games played and multiply by 10.
5. Add Tier 1 SCORE and Tier 2 SCORE to get the TOTAL.

Playoff Qualification

Within each pre-determined division, teams would be ranked in order of their point total. In the 2024 season, there were 364 teams, which would mean 52 teams per division. The top 32 in total points within each division would qualify for the playoffs. This could mean that in a division with a weaker overall record and point totals, a team could qualify with an overall record below teams that would be left out of "stronger" divisions. This is not completely dissimilar to the current system, where there have been teams that qualified for the playoffs with a 3-6 overall record, while others that finished 5-4 were left out.

Currently, regional assignment is done by WIAA staff to try to balance geography and also attempt to split up identified conference champions and those conference champions that finish unbeaten in league play.

The Wisconsin Football Playoff Matrix would remove much of that subjectivity in favor of a more objective process. Under the plan, teams would be assigned seeds within their division based on their Total Points. Each of the top four seeds in each division would be awarded a one-seed, the next four seeds would be awarded a two-seed, and so on all the way through the bottom four teams receiving an eight seed.

After that process is complete, the four teams for each seed would be evaluated to determine their best geographic placement. A "pin" would be placed in four "corners" of the state: Eau Claire (Northwest), Green Bay (Northeast), Milwaukee (Southeast), and Madison (Southwest). The system would calculate the best placement for each #1 seed and assign them to the region with the shortest overall travel distance amongst those seeds.

For seeds two through four, teams will be assigned to the region where the teams’ cumulative total drive time to each of the #1 seeds is minimized. Number four and number three will be placed directly with their likely second round opponent, the number one and number two seeds respectively. The number two will be placed with their closest number one seed, their likely third round opponent.

For lower seeds (#5–#8), matchups prioritize minimal travel distance directly between first round opponents. For each first round away team seed (e.g., #5 seeds) and their respective home teams (e.g., #4 seeds), all 24 travel distance permutations are calculated, and the matchups with the lowest total travel are chosen, with each away team assigned to the region of its paired home team.

The system prioritizes minimizing total travel distance within each region while also considering the longest individual trip. This ensures that travel burdens are more evenly distributed, preventing any single team from being disproportionately affected by the regional alignment.

Teams would be matched on the bracket as they traditionally have been: 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, 3 versus 6, 4 versus 5. The team with the better seed would host through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

"This system balances the competition of each bracket while prioritizing logistical efficiency for lower-ranked teams, rewarding regular-season success while minimizing travel burdens," says the WFCA plan.

There are additional components to the plan to address unique circumstances such as forfeits, no contests, ties, Point Total ties, and enrollment ties on division cutlines. The full proposal can be viewed here.

The WFCA has introduced the Wisconsin Football Playoff Matrix to its members, with positive initial feedback. The Association will hold webinar events December 9th and 11th for coaches to receive additional context and information, ask questions, and provide feedback. The WFCA will provide an official survey to head coaches at the end of that week. Based on the results of that survey, the proposal would be introduced at the WIAA Football Coaches Advisory Committee meeting in early January and then go through the regular WIAA Committee review process. The goal would be for the WIAA Board of Control to receive and vote on the plan at its February 5th meeting.