STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association performance factor initiative has advanced through the process for the second year with a review of the fall sports to be effective in 2025. This update includes four sport programs that were inadvertently not listed in the initial release identifying the divisional movements and are included in the listing below.
School programs reaching the six-point 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, 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 initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move to a division with lower enrollments for all sports except football, swimming & diving, and track & field in 2025-26. The Classification Committee reviewed four such requests for girls volleyball (Omro, Oshkosh North, Salam and Sheboygan South), one for boys soccer (Sheboygan South), one for both boys and girls cross country (Sheboygan South boys and girls), and two for girls tennis (Roncalli/Two Rivers and Sheboygan South). The committee approved four requests in girls volleyball (Omro, Oshkosh North, Salam and Sheboygan South), one in boys soccer (Sheboygan South), one in boys cross country (Sheboygan South) and one in girls tennis (Sheboygan South).
The school sports programs that have accumulated at least six points to engage a promotion to a division with higher enrollments–if their 2025-26 tournament placement enrollment doesn’t initially move them up a division–are listed below. Four sport programs were inadvertently not included in the prior release listing the impacted programs. Those four programs are Lancaster in girls cross country, and Catholic Memorial, Columbus and Rice Lake in 11-player football.
Please note that programs that meet the performance points threshold to be promoted and are initially assigned to a lower enrollment division–based on their 2025-26 tournament assignment enrollments–will be promoted back into the division they competed in during the most recent season’s Tournament Series.
Boys Cross Country (9)
Cedar Grove-Belgium
Hudson
Kohler
Lakeside Lutheran
Marquette
Oconomowoc
Solon Springs/Northwood
Stevens Point Area Senior High School
West Salem
Girls Cross Country (8)
Assumption
Bloomer
Lancaster
Muskego
Neenah
Slinger
University School of Milwaukee
Xavier
Football (12)
Aquinas
Badger
Bay Port
Catholic Memorial
Columbus
Edgar
Grantsburg
Kimberly
Notre Dame
Rice Lake
Stratford
Wrightstown
Girls Golf (6)
Bay Port
Divine Savior Holy Angels
Edgewood
Middleton
Prescott
Westosha Central
Boys Soccer (6)
Brookfield East
Lake Country Lutheran
Marquette
Middleton
Shoreland Lutheran
Waukesha West
Girls Tennis (5)
Aquinas
Arrowhead
Middleton
University School of Milwaukee
Xavier
Girls Volleyball (6)
Divine Savior Holy Angels
Howards Grove
Oconomowoc
St. Croix Falls
Wonewoc-Center
Xavier
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 52 programs listed above that compiled points to engage in a promotion, 11 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee evaluated one appeal in girls volleyball (Wonewoc-Center), two in boys soccer (Lake Country Lutheran and Waukesha West), three in boys cross country (Cedar Grove-Belgium, Solon Springs and West Salem), two in girls cross country (Lancaster and Xavier), one in girls tennis (Aquinas) and two in football (Badger and Wrightstown). The two approved appeals were Wonewoc-Center in girls volleyball and Xavier in girls cross country.
The original 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 that is being implemented in 2024-25. The current committee consists of nine athletic directors, two principals and seven superintendents.
The performance factor initiative promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period.
The WIAA will determine the Tournament Series assignments to be released for all 2025 fall sports except football and in girls volleyball in early January 2025. For more on the performance factor process, visit the Classification Committee homepage on the WIAA website.