MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STEVENS POINT – The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association executive staff announced Monday it is considering a five-division format for the boys and girls basketball state tournaments.
Four different plans have been submitted for further discussion.
The WIAA Board of Control, along with support from the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association, has developed a plan that focuses on face value enrollments as the determining factor as to where all schools would fall into a given division.
The divisions would be constructed as follows:
* Division 1 – schools with an enrollment of 1200 and above
* Division 2 – schools with enrollments ranging from 600 – 1199
* Division 3 – 50% of schools with enrollments between 200 and 600
* Division 4 – 50% of schools with enrollments between 200 and 600
* Division 5 – schools with enrollments of 200 and less
Division 1 would be comprised of 76 schools; Division 2 would have 88 schools; Division 3 would have 98 schools; Division 4 would have 99 schools; and Division 5 would have 122 schools.
According to current enrollments, Marshfield High School would fall in Division 1, Stratford and Auburndale would be in Division 4 and Spencer and Marshfield Columbus Catholic would be in Division 5.
The state tournament schedule would be as follows:
* Thursday afternoon – Division 5 semifinals
* Thursday evening – Division 4 semifinals
* Friday morning – Division 3 semifinals
* Friday afternoon – Division 2 semifinals
* Friday evening – Division 1 semifinals
* Saturday late morning/afternoon – State Championship games in Divisions 5, 4 and 3
* Saturday evening – State Championship games in Division 2 and 1
As was the case with the football district plan, this is an idea in need of membership review and feedback through a series of committee meetings ending with the Advisory Council Meeting on June 23 and Board of Control Meeting on June 24.
If adopted, possible implementation could be as early as the 2011 basketball tournament series.
