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Competitive Balance

WIAA Spring Performance Factor Results in Divisional Movement

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association 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

Please 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. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these with one approval. 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 will release the Tournament Series assignments for all 2024-25 spring sports later this summer. 

For more on the performance factor process, visit the Performance Factor homepage on the WIAA website.

# WIAA #

WIAA Winter Performance Factor Results in Divisional Movement
WIAA Fall Performance Factor Results in Divisional Movement

Classification Committee

A classification committee, comprised of members serving three-year terms, will hear appeals made by schools and will consider the following factors when placing programs in a higher or lower division upon a school's appeal: 

  • Prior year out-of-building student percentage on rosters or historical movement of student-athletes
  • Socioeconomics of the school's population 
  • Demographics of the school's population 
  • Competitive history and balance
  • Geography 
  • School's enrollment trend 
  • Student participation rate in WIAA-sponsored activities 
  • Admission policies of the school concerning student enrollment 

 

Inaugural Classification Committee*

• Mike Beighley, Superintendent at Whitehall - Term expires: 2023-24
• Nathan Burklund, Superintendent at Niagara - Term expires: 2024-25
• Brad Ceranski, Superintendent at Fall Creek - Term expires: 2023-24
• Kurt Cohen, District Administrator at Potosi - Term expires: 2025-26
• Timothy Flood, Athletic Director at Green Bay Area School District (Co-Chair) - Term expires: 2024-25
• Tyree Gamble, Athletic Director at Clinton - Term expires: 2024-25
• Bryon Graun, Athletic Director at Colby - Term expires: 2025-26
• Michelle Guyant-Holloway, Athletic Director at Menomonie - Term expires: 2024-25
• John Handel, Athletic Director at Elkhorn - Term expires: 2025-26
• Cory Hinkel, Superintendent at Luck - Term expires: 2025-26
• Mark Holzman, Superintendent at Janesville - Term expires: 2023-24
• Kelly Isselmann, Athletic Director at Valders - Term expires: 2023-24
• Mike Johnson, Superintendent in Eau Claire - Term expires: 2023-24
• Ted Knutson, President at Aquinas - Term expires: 2024-25
• Michael Lambrecht, Principal at Columbus Catholic - Term expires: 2025-26
• Peggy Larson, District Administrator at Winneconne - Term expires: 2024-25
• Karl Morrin, Superintendent at Florence - Term expires: 2023-24
• Douglas Parker, District Administrator at Big Foot (Co-Chair) - Term expires: 2025-2026
• Thomas Wermuth, District Administrator at Adams-Friendship - Term expires: 2023-24

*  The members of the inaugural Classification Committee will serve a 1-year, 2-year or 3-year term to cycle into the prescribed demographic and composition of the committee