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Southeast Wisconsin Conference Realignment and Five-Division Softball Plan to be voted on at WIAA meeting

10/06/2015, 9:45pm CDT
By Travis Wilson

Friday's WIAA Board of Control Meeting could be extremely transformative for the high school sports landscape. A proposed large-scale realignment in the southeast Wisconsin area gets much of the attention, but the Board will also consider spring sports changes, including a request from softball coaches to move to five divisions.

WSN General Manager Travis Wilson will be at the meeting, providing live updates via Twitter. You can follow him at @travisWSN.

The conference realignment proposal is the culmination of more than a year of discussions by impacted schools and WIAA Associate Director Deb Hauser, whose responsibilities include conference realignment. Several plans have been discussed and circulated by both Hauser and administrators from the schools, but the proposal to be considered by the Board of Control is relatively new.

Under the plan, most schools currently in the Classic Eight, North Shore, Greater Metro, and Little Ten would be combined into one super-conference of 29 schools. The current Woodland Conference would remain largely intact, with Wauwatosa East and Milwaukee Lutheran moving into the league. As has been discussed at length, Beaver Dam and Watertown would move to the Badger Conference. Implementation for these changes would be for the 2017-18 school year.

Hauser indicated that the 29-school super-conference would determine divisions amongst themselves, without involvement from the WIAA. "The schools will have the opportunity to structure their divisions as it best suits the needs of the schools involved and provides the ability to alter the groupings as need arises in future years," she wrote in an email to all impacted schools.

At the October meeting, many schools are expected to attend, with several registered to speak for or against the proposal. The Board will have the ability to approve the plan as presented, reject it, or modify it.

The full realignment proposal can be found here.

Five-Divisions for Softball

For several years, some in the softball coaching arena have made a push to add a division to the softball playoffs, increasing from the current four, to five divisions. Last year, it was advanced through the WIAA committee process and supported by the Softball Coaches Advisory as well as the Sports Advisory Committee, but ultimately did not pass. 

This year, the Five Division model was tweaked a bit, with an adjustment made to the number of teams in each division, with more ending up in Division 1. Below are the current and proposed softball divisional placements.

Proposed
Division 1 - 8 sectionals - 112 schools (916 low enrollment) 
Division 2 - 4 sectionals - 79 schools (454) 
Division 3 - 4 sectionals - 79 schools (277) 
Division 4 - 4 sectionals - 80 schools (181) 
Division 5 - 4 sectionals - 80 schools

Current
Division 1 - 8 sectionals - 113 schools (904 low enrollment) 
Division 2 - 4 sectionals - 107 schools (363) 
Division 3 - 4 sectionals - 105 schools (212) 
Division 4 - 4 sectionals - 105 schools

Notably, the proposal to be voted on by the Board of Control differs from the Five Division model passed for basketball several years ago, in that in softball, Division 1 would retain eight teams at the state tournament, with four in all other divisions. In basketball, all divisions have four teams represented at state.

One significant difference that allows for this is in the venue and scheduling of games. Goodman Diamond, the home of the state softball tournament, can handle the additional games of an 8-4-4-4-4 model, though there may need to be adjustments made to pre-game warm-up procedures. In basketball, the Kohl Center and Resch Center are not able to handle an 8-4-4-4-4 schedule. 

Like any proposal, the WIAA Board of Control can approve the proposal as it is, reject it completely, or modify and approve.

Below is the proposed state tournament schedule under an 8-4-4-4-4- model.

Proposed Softball State Tournament Schedule

Thursday
8 a.m. - Division 1 Quarterfinals
10 a.m. - Division 1 Quarterfinals 
12:15 p.m. - Division 1 Quarterfinals 
2:15 p.m. - Division 1 Quarterfinals 
4:30 p.m. - Division 4 Semifinals 
6:30 p.m. - Division 4 Semifinals 
8:30 p.m. - Division 5 Semifinal

Friday
8 a.m. - Division 5 Semifinals
10 a.m. - Division 3 Semifinals
12:15 p.m. - Division 3 Semifinals 
2:15 p.m. - Division 2 Semifinals 
4:30 p.m. - Division 2 Semifinals 
6:30 p.m. - Division 1 Semifinals 
8:30 p.m. - Division 1 Semifinals

Saturday
9 a.m. - Division 5 Championship 
11:30 a.m. - Division 4 Championship 
2 p.m. - Division 3 Championship 
4:30 p.m. - Division 2 Championship 
7 p.m. - Division 1 Championship

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