STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association performance factor initiative has advanced through the process for the second time with a review of the winter 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 15 such requests for winter sports, including eight for girls basketball, six for boys basketball and two for boys hockey. The committee approved three requests in girls basketball, two in boys basketball and two in boys hockey. Additionally, five schools requested–and were approved–to move to a division of higher enrollments, including three in boys hockey, one in boys basketball and one in girls basketball.

The 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. 

Boys Basketball (9)
Arrowhead
Brillion
De Pere
Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic
Neenah
Pewaukee
St. Thomas More
West Salem
Wisconsin Lutheran

Girls Basketball (9)
Albany/Monticello
Arrowhead
Brookfield East
Kettle Moraine
Laconia
McDonell Catholic
Notre Dame
Pewaukee
Waupun

Gymnastics (9)
Elkhorn
Franklin/Muskego
Homestead
Medford/Colby
Mount Horeb
Nicolet
Verona/Edgewood
West Salem/Aquinas/Bangor
Whitefish Bay

Boys Hockey (5)
Edgewood
Hudson
New Richmond
Notre Dame
St. Mary’s Springs

Wrestling (5)
Coleman
Fennimore
Kaukauna
Luxemburg-Casco
Prairie du Chien

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 2024-25 tournament assignment enrollments–will be promoted back into the division they competed in during the most recent season’s Tournament Series.

In addition, 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, 12 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these with one approval. It is also noteworthy that 13 of the 35 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 winter sports later this spring. 

For more on the performance factor process, visit the Classification Committee homepage on the WIAA website.

# WIAA #