WIAA BOARD APPROVES FIVE-DIVISION BASKETBALL MODEL; EARLIER FOOTBALL START DATE
Friday, July 2nd, 2010 -- 6:58 AM
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control ratified several membership recommendations that will impact the future of interscholastic athletics in the state and approved football-only conference realignment plans at its annual summer meeting last week.Beginning in 2010-11, the WIAA Tournament Series with have a fifth division in basketball. The Board unanimously approved the plan that advances four teams to the State Tournament in each division and five championship games on the final day of the boys and girls tournaments. The plan also provides Division 1 with a ?super sectional? the Tuesday the week of the State Tournament.
The change will create greater enrollment balance within divisions. Division 1 will comprise of schools with enrollments above 1,200. Division 2 will include schools with enrollments between 600-1,200. Schools with enrollments between 200-600 will be split in half between Divisions 3 and 4, with the largest enrollments in that range in Division 3 and the smaller enrollments in Division 4. Division 5 will include schools with enrollments below 200.
In other basketball action, the Board approved a change to the regional and sectional schedules for 2011. Regionals will be played on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and sectionals will be played on Thursday and Saturday. It also supported the recommendation to seed the half bracket of up to 16 teams in each Division 2, 3 and 4 sectional if 75 percent of the schools in a given half bracket consent. If not, the bracket will be split into regional groupings with a maximum of eight as is the current model.
A directive from the Board to eliminate three football games in 10 days at the end of the season will result in beginning the season earlier. The Board approved the option to begin the season on the Wednesday of week five, five days earlier than the traditional start date. A membership survey indicated starting the season early was the most preferred option. Other options included eliminating one game of the regular season, conducting the State Championship Playoffs one week later or reducing the playoff field to 112.
In wrestling, the Board approved the Seven Percent Committee?s recommendation to add language that clarifies procedures to establish minimum weight and qualifying for the growth allowance. In addition, the committee?s recommendation that no day be counted twice when calculating appropriate weight loss when a wrestler drops to a lower weight class was approved. The Board also passed a recommendation that all digital scales used in official weigh-ins must measure in increments of two-tenths or less by 2011.
Changes in hockey include a three game suspension for players assessed a disqualification penalty for fighting and altering the start times of games on Thursday and Friday of the State Tournament. The first session each day will begin at noon, and the evening sessions will start at 6 p.m. The times are one hour later than prior start times. In addition, the Hockey Coaches Advisory Committee will add an additional girls hockey representative.
All three of the Medical Advisory Committee?s recommendations were supported by the Board. The first indicates the WIAA will use the Preparation Physical Form with a clearance page specific to state requirements. The second eliminates the printing of the green physical cards. The cards will be available for downloading on the WIAA Website. The third requires all foreign students to have a physical conducted in the United States prior to being allowed to practice or compete beginning this fall.
After considering an appeal to the initial approval of combining the Wisconsin Valley Conference and Fox Valley Association for football only, the Board voted 7-3 to give final approval of the plan that forms one, 16-team league containing two separate eight-team divisions, which are to be determined by the schools of the newly formed football conference for the 2011 season.
The second football-only conference realignment plan also received final approval by the Board. It affects the members of the CloverWood, Dairyland, Great Northern and Marawood conferences with implementation in 2011. The plan moves McDonell Central from the Marawood to the CloverWood, Augusta from the CloverWood to the Dairyland and Tomahawk from the Great Northern to the Marawood.
The Great Northern Conference released Northland Pines and Tomahawk from its football schedule effective in 2010, making it a five-team league this fall. In 2011, Merrill and Ashland are both scheduled to become members of the Great Northern Conference for football only. Until then, Merrill will compete in the Wisconsin Valley Conference with all sports beginning this fall, and Ashland will play an independent football schedule in 2010.
The Board received a report on the status of renovations at University Ridge to repair the course?s greens. The State Girls Golf Championships will need an alternate location in 2011.
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