STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control approved a first consideration of a conference alignment plan for eight-player football beginning in 2020 at its May meeting today.

The plan places eight-player programs into eight, six-team conferences. Each conference will be paired with another six-team league in their region to provide crossover games.

Eight-Player Football Conference Alignment

Membership rules require a 40-day window for schools involved in conference alignment plans to appeal the first consideration of the Board before it takes final action. Thus, schools have until June 26, 2019, to file an appeal of the initial vote. The Board will give final consideration of the plan at its meeting on Aug. 9, 2019.

Among the action items approved by the Board were the general fund financial statement and payments for April, as well as the Annual Meeting minutes from April 17.  

The executive staff shared reports on a number of topics with the Board, including a review of the Scholar-Athlete Awards Ceremony; an update on the Award of Excellence criteria; information on length-of-service recognitions for licensed officials; and a lengthy discussion on the duration of cooperative program renewals, which will be advanced to the June meeting agenda in the form of an action item.

Another topic receiving significant discussion was the difficulty in identifying available and willing hosts for the Division 3 track and field regional meet in the southeast part of the state.

The Board also received liaison updates from Michael Thompson of the Department of Public Instruction, Pam Foegen of the NFHS Board of Directors, and Todd Sobrilsky of the Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association.

The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 511 senior high schools and 49 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. It sponsors 27 championship tournament series for boys and girls in 2018-19. 

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Release by WIAA Communications