Board acts on conference plans; Merrill’s move to GNC becomes official

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control approved several of the Conference Realignment Task Force recommendations for conference realignment, advanced three Constitutional amendments to the annual meeting and increased tournament officials’ and state tournament workers’ pay at its March meeting Tuesday.

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. The schools and conferences associated with those 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. Those approvals include Merrill’s request to join the Great Northern Conference. The Blue Jays will be joining the conference in all sports starting in the fall of 2025. Merrill is already a GNC member in football and was an initial member of the conference for two years from 2008-10 before being moved back to the Wisconsin Valley Conference.

In another move affecting a local conference, Osseo-Fairchild’s request to leave the Cloverbelt Conference and join the Dairyland Conference was approved.

The complete details of the remanded and approved conference configurations, as well as information on the conference realignment process, are available on the Conference Realignment Requests and Proposals page of the WIAA website. Access the page by clicking on the “Conference Realignment” link within the “Schools” megamenu.

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-cent 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.