The 2020 high school football season is just a few weeks away, but it's never too early to start thinking about the playoffs. Enrollment numbers determine divisional placement in the WIAA postseason, but unlike any other sport, football does not have pre-determined divisions at the start of the year. Instead, 224 teams qualify for the playoffs in various ways, and those qualifiers are then broken into 7 divisions of 32 teams each.
The WIAA has released the enrollment figures that will be used in determining this year's playoff divisional placements. These numbers include charter schools as well as co-op figures. Based on those figures and the divisional cutlines from past seasons, we've advanced a very unofficial and very early list of divisional placement for all the teams in the state.
To determine the PROJECTED divisional cutlines, we took the average of each division's cutline from the last three years. We tweaked this to account for cutlines increasing over the last several seasons, especially last year. We weighted the most recent season more heavily in determining the average.
Remember, these are just projections and official cutlines and divisional placements will NOT be determined until the final game of the regular season is completed.
We also have provided a list of the divisional cutlines for the past 12 seasons to show where those lines have been in the past and how they've changed in recent years.
Division | 2020* | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D1 Low Enrollment | 1444 | 1492 | 1360 | 1422 | 1449 | 1445 | 1418 | 1421 | 1389 | 1301 | 1331 | 1360 | 1405 |
D2 Low Enrollment | 1005 | 1038 | 957 | 966 | 953 | 937 | 932 | 936 | 922 | 841 | 878 | 878 | 919 |
D3 Low Enrollment | 591 | 628 | 543 | 540 | 571 | 561 | 528 | 531 | 544 | 504 | 508 | 513 | 557 |
D4 Low Enrollment | 408 | 423 | 398 | 367 | 397 | 393 | 345 | 358 | 362 | 352 | 359 | 336 | 353 |
D5 Low Enrollment | 286 | 299 | 271 | 261 | 290 | 279 | 245 | 266 | 253 | 255 | 252 | 238 | 252 |
D6 Low Enrollment | 197 | 197 | 197 | 194 | 196 | 202 | 194 | 197 | 200 | 194 | 184 | 181 | 195 |
* - Projected |
Travis Wilson serves as the WisSports.net General Manager, Football Editor, and contributing writer for other parts of the site. Wilson was selected as part of the Sports 40 Under 40 list by Coach & AD Magazine and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association for 2019. The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) named Travis the 2015 recipient of the Dave McClain Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the WFCA Executive Board and is a member of the Executive Board of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. A graduate of Richland Center High School and Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Travis was a three-sport athlete in high school (football, baseball, basketball), inducted to the Richland Center High School Hall of Fame in 2023, and currently resides in Reedsburg. You can follow him on Twitter at @travisWSN.
For the latest and most up to date football news and recruiting information, follow Travis on Twitter @travisWSN. Email story ideas, recruiting info, etc. to Travis at travis(at)wissports.net.