WIAA board approves five division basketball model June 28, 2010 At the WIAA end of the year meetings Thursday, the Board of Control, passed three proposals which include starting the prep football season five days sooner, football only realignment and the introduction of a new five division basketball tournament.
Football
With the end of the season, most playoff teams were forced to play three games in just 10 days, with the proposal will bump up the start of 2011 season five days to Wednesday of week five, the final vote was 6-4.
The first big proposal that will effect the Antigo Red Robins was the football only realignment. After debate, the Board voted, 7-3, in favor of a football only realignment plan that merges the Wisconsin Valley Conference and the Fox Valley Association beginning in 2011. The 16-team conference will include two yet-to-be-finalized eight-team divisions.
The Board approved the Great Northern Conference's release of Northland Pines and Tomahawk from its football schedule for the 2010 season. Then in 2011, Merrill and Ashland will become members of that league to make it a seven team conference.
Northland Pines will complete in an upper Michigan Conference, while Tomahawk will be moved to the Marawood conference. Merrill will compete this next season in the Wisconsin Valley, and Ashland will play an independent schedule.
Basketball
With a 10-0 vote, the Board of Control will change the 2010-11 season for the first time since 1991 and will expand the basketball tournament to five divisions.
Division One will include schools with enrollments over 1,200, D2 will have enrollments of 600-1199 (Antigo will play in this division), D3 and four will split schools with enrollments of 200-600; while the new fifth division will consist of schools with enrollment under 200.
In other basketball action, the Board approved a change to the regional and sectional schedules for 2011. Regionals will be played on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, and sectionals will be played on Thursday and Saturday. It also supported the recommendation to seed the half bracket of up to 16 teams in each Division 2, 3 and 4 sectional if 75 percent of the schools in a given half bracket consent. If not, the bracket will be split into regional groupings with a maximum of eight.
Wrestling
The Board approved the Seven Percent Committee’s recommendation to add language that clarifies procedures to establish minimum weight and qualifying for the growth allowance. In addition, the committee’s recommendation that no day be counted twice when calculating appropriate weight loss when a wrestler drops to a lower weight class was approved. The Board also passed a recommendation that all digital scales used in official weigh-ins must measure in increments of two-tenths or less by 2011.
Hockey
Changes in hockey include a three game suspension for players assessed a disqualification penalty for fighting and altering the start times of games on Thursday and Friday of the State Tournament. The first session each day will begin at noon, and the evening sessions will start at 6 p.m. The times are one hour later than prior start times. In addition, the Hockey Coaches Advisory Committee will add an additional girls hockey representative as is the current model.
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