April 22, 2021 at 8:40 a.m.
Football conferences, spring playoff admission requirements OKed by WIAA board
Football conferences, spring playoff admission requirements OKed by WIAA board
The Conference Realignment Task Force Committee considered rationale to provide a conference affiliation for all member schools grouped by enrollment and by geography, as well as prioritizing eight-team and paired seven-team conferences - where reasonable - with geography and enrollment to accommodate the need for seven-game conference results for WIAA playoff-qualifying criteria. The new conference alignment impacts 23 schools, effective for the 2022 football season.
The realigned conferences approved by the WIAA board do not affect the Great Northern Conference, which will remain with the same eight-team configuration for football in 2022. Both Ashland and Hayward/Lac Courte Oreilles had initial requests, and subsequent appeals, to leave the GNC denied by the task force.
The board unanimously voted to require charging admission at all baseball and softball tournament series events this spring. Member schools will retain 100% of the gate receipts, but they will be responsible for officials expenses, host school allowances and host manager fees. If expenses are not fully covered by admissions or if schools are not able to charge admissions, schools are responsible for all or remaining event fees.
In extending additional COVID-19 accommodations for this spring, the board approved a waiver to NFHS baseball rules for 2021 only, allowing members to schedule five-inning baseball doubleheaders with continued compliance with the pitch count rule. It also voted to increase the number of nonschool competitions from two to four in girls soccer during the 2021 spring season only, applicable during the regular season and the tournament series.
A special election was approved to fill the District 7 position on the Board of Control with the pending retirement of Phil Ertl. The Board voted to conduct the election using electronic balloting. The deadline for filing declarations of candidacy is Wednesday, May 19. The newly elected position will be seated for the August board meeting.
In other board action, it voted to remove a petition amendment from the Annual Meeting agenda addressing school classifications in boys and girls basketball, approved cooperative team arrangements for 2021-22 and 2022-23, appointments to the officials advisory committee for 2021-22, as well as the February and March general fund financial statements and payments.
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