WIAA board OKs Merrill’s move to GNC

      

On Tuesday the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control approved several of the Conference Realignment Task Force recommendations for conference realignment — including one that impacts the Great Northern Conference — advanced three Constitutional amendments to the Annual Meeting, and increased tournament officials’ and State Tournament workers’ pay.

After reviewing six appeals of the conference realignment plans recommended by the Conference Realignment Task Force, the board approved 14 of the 20 plans and remanded seven back to the task force for further evaluation and consideration. 

Among the plans that were approved by the board was one that will see Merrill move from the Wisconsin Valley Conference to the Great Northern Conference in all sports beginning in the fall of 2025. Merrill was an original member of the GNC when it was formed in 2008, but was moved back to the Valley when the WIAA put Rhinelander in the conference in 2010. Merrill already is a football member of the GNC and offers all GNC-sanctioned sports with the exception of gymnastics, boys’ swimming and boys’ tennis. 

The schools associated with plans that were remanded to be re-evaluated by the task force are Germantown, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Kewaskum, Oak Creek, Plymouth, Waukesha North and Waukesha South.

The task force will review the remanded conference plan at its April 9 meeting with a final proposal for those conferences impacted to be presented to the Board for final consideration at its April 23 meeting.

All of the plans approved by the board will be implemented in the fall of 2025. 

An increase in tournament series officials and state tournament workers pay was approved by the board. Beginning in the fall of 2024, officials’ pay will be increased $10 a game with a $.10 per mile increase for regional, sectional and state travel expenses. An analysis of state tournament workers compensation will result in an increase in pay to a level consistent across all sports. In addition, the executive staff has established a four-year cycle for a regular tournament pay review.

The board also took action to approve the winter sports 

cooperative teams for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Among the three amendments the board voted to advance for a membership vote at the annual meeting on April 24, two impact the bylaws. The first would allow schools to use their resources and coaches to conduct developmental programming during the school year but outside the designated sport season for students in eighth grade or below, which remains prohibited for students in grades 9-12. The second bylaw amendment would permit member schools to submit one unedited video clip for review by the executive staff if a school believes the wrong player has been identified in an ejection and to assist in identifying the correct student-athlete to serve the ejection suspension.

A third amendment is related to the membership’s rules of eligibility. If approved in April, student-athletes would be permitted to enter into Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for activities not associated or identified with their school team, school, conference or the WIAA and in accordance with a number of prohibited NIL activities.

Other topics of discussion included staff reports on the competitive balance process, ongoing efforts to recruit and retain licensed officials; plans for the 2024 NFHS Summer Meeting in June; and updates on the Student Leadership Initiative.