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The WIAA Board of Control today voted unanimously on the current 5-Division basketball proposal at its monthly meeting on Thursday in Green Lake. The proposed changes to the boys and girls tournament structures were first introduced in February and would add a fifth division while also establishing new guidelines to determine divisional placement for the WIAA tournament series.



WSN has been providing Live Updates from the meeting including the final vote on the proposal via the WisSports.net Twitter feed. To follow us on Twitter, please click here. 



According to the WIAA, there had been concern amongst Division 3 coaches about their inability to qualify for the state basketball tournament as there was a sense among D3 public school members that the opportunities for representation were not equitable. Also, small Division 1 schools expressed concern about their ability to qualify for the state tournament.



At its June 2009 meeting, the Board of Control directed the WIAA executive staff to develop a divisional model that would address these concerns. A 5-division format with a multiplier based on a rural/urban component was created for discussion at Area Meetings in the fall of 2009. Feedback from the member schools at those meetings indicated support for five divisions but was not supportive of treating the non-public school segment of the membership differently. 



An ad-hoc committee was created in December of 2009 to review and recommend how to assign schools within five divisions. After much discussion and debate of several plans, the current model was advanced from a modified version originated by Richland Center girls basketball coach Steve Board.



This proposal uses face value enrollments and assigns teams to divisions with a goal of a 2:1 enrollment ratio, meaning the largest team in a division would have roughly twice as many students as the smallest team. 



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 



For more information and background on this plan, please visit our past 5-Division article here.



To view maps of the projected new divisions and sectionals, please visit here.



The WIAA has more information and background on divisional placements and much more on its website which can be found here.



MORE INFORMATION AND REACTION FROM COACHES WILL BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE DAY.