The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) will soon consider a plan that would increase postseason opportunities for those teams that do not qualify for the regular playoffs, while also adding a consolation bracket to the regular 224-team, 11-player football tournament.
As released by WSN, the WIAA Football Coaches Advisory Committee has sent the proposal to football coaches for review and feedback by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA).
Under the plan, all 11-player teams in the state would play a minimum of 11 games. The regular season would be unchanged, with no change in start date or the nine-game regular season maximum.
Conferences, conference games, playoff qualification, and regular season would remain the same. The 8-player postseason would not be impacted by this plan and would not be subject to the consolation bracket or pod-style setups.
The entirety of this plan will continue through the WIAA’s governing structure in the coming weeks, including the Sports Advisory Committee, Advisory Council (who can veto the proposal before it gets to the Board of Control), and if applicable to the WIAA Board of Control, which will meet to review football season regulation proposals on Wednesday, February 1, 2023
WFCA LETTER TO COACHES
The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association sent the following letter to all head football coaches earlier today outlining the proposal:
“Coaches,
We hope everyone is doing well. We want to make you aware of a proposal that was brought forward to the WIAA. The proposal has football expanding its season to 11 games. Many other sports have added games in recent years and we feel now is our time to do so as well. We don’t want to start our season any earlier, so therefore we had to be creative at the end of the season to expand to 11 games. We also didn’t want to change anything with the current playoff qualifying criteria or tournament format to find the state champion in each division.
The 224 WIAA football tournament will remain as is. This new proposal adds a consolation bracket to the current tournament format for teams that lose in level 1. Original seeding will be used to determine matchups. Think of this as a “regional” consolation title. Teams will now have the opportunity to compete for 3rd place within their 8-team grouping. All playoff qualifying teams will get at least 11 games, with the consolation finalists getting 12 games. The WIAA will recognize the consolation bracket winners with an award. Please see diagram below for the proposed consolation bracket.
As for the teams that don’t qualify for the 224 team tournament, the WIAA will create a Similar Record Pod format that will guarantee all teams get 11 games. This takes nothing away from our outstanding tournament, but allows non-qualifying teams to extend their season competing against teams with similar records, with the hope that it leads to program improvement. This will result in all teams playing football until the end of October, two weeks longer than we currently are playing. This offers great opportunities for all our athletes to gain more experience and this provides teams at the end their season a competitive game with like opponents.
We feel this is a positive move for football in Wisconsin, without going to an “All Play” tournament.”
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
