WIAA BASKETBALL - Shot clocks rejected again; expanded state tournament also a no-go

The WIAA’s Board of Control on June 25 approved some recommendations forwarded by the basketball coaches advisory committee, but the items drawing the most attention going into the week never got to the board for consideration.

The day before the Board of Control meeting, a proposal calling for the expansion of the state basketball tournaments and two items proposing the introduction of shot clocks for high school basketball in Wisconsin were rejected by the WIAA’s Advisory Council. By rule, that stopped them from advancing to the Board of Control for consideration the next day.

The Advisory Council is an 18-member committee consisting of administrators, principals and athletic directors from around the state with five large-school, five medium-sized school and five smallschool representatives along with three atlarge seats.

The push for a 35-second shot clock, which has continued since the clocks were approved in June of 2017 but then rescinded that December, was rejected for a second straight year.

Recommendation number one brought to the Advisory Council asked for the option of using a shot clock during the 2025-26 season for non-conference games upon agreement of both participating schools. When the clock would have been used, host schools would have been required to complete a post-game data collection form and send it to the WIAA.

The second recommendation would have implemented the 35-second shot clock in all regular season and tournament games in the 2027-28 season. Both items were favored 6-1 by the basketball coaches committee and were approved by the 14member Sports Advisory Committee, which consists of one male and one female athletic director from each of the WIAA’s seven districts. The first item passed that committee 11-2 and the second passed by a slim 7-6 margin.

The WIAA’s Executive Staff weighed in

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after that and, according to prephoops. com, was split on both proposals, though the staff’s recommendations are advisory only. Had the full implementation of the shot clock been passed by the Board of Control, it still would’ve had to go to a vote from the full membership at the WIAA’s 2026 annual meeting.

In 2024, the Advisory Council approved an amendment calling for an annual meeting vote on the shot clock by the entire WIAA membership in April of 2025. Proponents hoped to have the clocks fully implemented by the 2026-27 season. But the Board of Control by a 6-4 vote rejected placing the amendment on the annual meeting agenda.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 31 states and Washington, D.C. will use shot clocks in some capacity by the start of the 202627 season.

State tournament

The Advisory Council also shot down a proposal to expand the basketball state tournaments from 20 to 40 teams and from three to four days that had emerged this spring and had reportedly gained about 90% support from Wisconsin’s head coaches who responded to a survey regarding the plan.

The proposed format starts with the reduction of one regional round in the opening week of each tournament. Instead of the current three rounds on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday of regional week, brackets under the proposed plan would have regional play on Tuesday and Friday only.

Sectional week would stay the same with semifinals on Thursday and finals on Saturday.

The proposal then calls for state tournament play to start the Wednesday after sectionals with quarterfinal games at three different sites. Eighteen of the 20 quarterfinal games would be played that day with two morning games, two afternoon games and two evening games at each site.

The last two quarterfinals would fill the currently vacant Thursday morning slot in the state tournament schedule. The Division 5 semifinals would fill the afternoon session, followed by the Division 4 semifinals on Thursday night.

The plan puts the Division 3 semifinals on Friday morning, followed by the traditional Division 2 semifinals in the afternoon and Division 1 semifinals in the evening session.

Championship Saturday would feature no changes.

The abundance of games on Wednesday is a likely sticking point with the plan. Several teams would not get the opportunity to play on the big stages of the Resch Center in Green Bay for girls and the Kohl Center for boys. Broadcasts of games happening simultaneously at three different sites is also an issue.

Among the advantages touted by the coaches committee when the plan was introduced were the chances to give teams from more areas chances to get to state, showcasing more of the state’s top teams and athletes, filling the empty Thursday time slot, generating additional revenue and potentially helping create some motivation for more girls to return to the sport as participation numbers have been on a recent decline.

In Minnesota, 32 boys and 32 girls teams qualify for the state tournaments and in Iowa, 40 girls teams and 32 boys teams qualify for state.

Changes approved

The Board of Control did approve several basketball coaches’ recommendations addressing tournament seeding last week. Language will be added to the Tournament Procedures in the Season Regulations to include the percentage weight used in the formula for a team’s own win percentage and a team’s overall strength of schedule. The board also approved a recommendation to release unofficial preliminary electronic seeds for the girls’ tournament in Week 30 of the WIAA calendar and for the boys’ tournament in Week 31 (late January/ early February). In addition, beginning in 2025-26, head-to-head contest results will be reviewed for all consecutive seeds, and when virtual statistical ties occur among three or more teams, head-to-head results will be reviewed among all respective tied teams.

Another basketball recommendation to be added to the season regulations includes allowing schools to reverse the regulation uniform colors for no more than three home games with mutual consent by each schools’ administration. Furthermore, boys’ regional final games will be required to begin at 4 p.m. or 7 p.m., and girls’ sectional finals will be scheduled for 1 p.m. with an option of a 3 p.m. starting time with WIAA executive office approval.

Hockey approval

One hockey recommendation reviewed by the Board received approval. In an emergency situation when a team’s goalie is unable to continue because of injury, illness or other unforeseen circumstances, a substitute goaltender may be permitted to enter the game regardless of the day’s previous participation limits of five periods.