Wisconsin Soccer Central

The WIAA ad-hoc committee looking into solutions to address competitive balance in prep sports in Wisconsin has made a change to its "success factor" proposal, one that likely would result in more teams moving up in tournament play if approved.

The committee, made up of administrators from 21 schools across the state, met Nov. 18 to finalize the plan it will present to the WIAA Board of Control on Friday.

The proposal remains the same as announced in early November, with teams accruing points for success in the state tournament series. Winning a state title would be worth four points, state runner-ups would receive three, losing state semifinalists would be given two points and teams advancing to the final eight would receive one point.

However, the group is now proposing that teams that amass six points in a three-year span be moved up one division from their normal placement based on enrollment – the initial proposal had that threshold at seven points.

In a summary of the Nov. 18 meeting, posted by our partners at the Wisconsin Sports Network, the committee supported lowering the limit to six points to "create more movement of schools." Read meeting summary (pdf)

The "success factor" would be applied in seven team sports: boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, girls volleyball, baseball and softball. The proposal calls for it to be implemented during the 2016-17 school year, using results from the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years as the first three-year span.

The WIAA Board of Control will discuss the proposal Friday and could approve, reject or modify the plan. If the Board of Control passes a proposal, it would be voted on by the full WIAA membership at the 2015 annual meeting in April.

If the new plan had been in place over the past three years, six boys soccer teams would be moving up for next fall's tournament: Brookfield East, Oregon and Cedarburg would move to Division 1, Mount Horeb and Green Bay Notre Dame would be in Division 2 and Racine Prairie School would be in Division 3.

Brookfield East, Oregon, Mount Horeb and Prairie School would have accrued seven points from 2012 through '14, while Cedarburg and Notre Dame would have six apiece. Milwaukee Marquette would have eight points, but since the Hilltoppers already play in Division 1, they can't be moved up any higher.

On the girls' side, seven teams would be moving up in 2015 if the "success factor" had been in place – two more than if the threshold had been seven points.

Waukesha Catholic Memorial would have collected the maximum 12 points, having claimed Division 2 state championships in 2012 and '13 and the Division 3 title this year, and would be placed in Division 2. Mount Horeb (nine points) and Appleton Xavier (six) also would move up to Division 2.

Waukesha West (seven) and Cedarburg (six) would have been promoted to Division 1, while the Lake Country Lutheran co-op (eight) and Prairie School (seven) would have been elevated to Division 3 based on the past three years' results. De Pere also would have six points, but the Redbirds already are in Division 1.