WIAA ANNUAL MEETING - WIAA membership approves NIL, more summer coaching contact
WIAA ANNUAL MEETING
Amendments allowing studentathletes to pursue Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) opportunities and expanding summer coaching contact were approved while a petition calling for the removal of cross country from the competitive balance factor was denied Friday during the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s annual meeting in Stevens Point.
About 456 representatives from 411 schools were registered to attend the 129th annual meeting held at the Sentry Insurance Theater.
While the NIL constitutional amendment was an item that drew statewide interest, it passed handily with zero discussion at Friday’s meeting by a 293-108 vote. A virtually identical proposal was voted down a year ago 219170.
“With today’s vote, member schools have opted to join a growing list of states that allow student athletes to capitalize on their athletic talents in a way that is similar to students with other valued talents and skills,” WIAA Executive Director Stephanie Hauser said in a press release following Friday’s meeting. “At its core, the WIAA is charged with promoting fairness and sportsmanship while protecting the integrity of the game –– something I believe this NIL language preserves.”
Falling under the amateur status article of the WIAA’s Rules of Eligibility, the amendment allows student-athletes to pursue NIL opportunities, but there are several restrictions.
First, the student may not appear in the uniform of his/her school and does not use the marks, logos, etc. of the school, its teams, its conference or the WIAA. The student cannot promote activities or products associated with gaming/ gambling, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, cannabis or related products, banned or illegal substances, adult entertainment products or services and weapons.
NIL compensation cannot be contingent on specific athletic performances or achievements and cannot be provided by the school or persons associated with a school as a recruitment tool. The amendment contains a long list of definitions of “persons associated with school,” with current or former coaches and athletes, booster club members and persons who are employed by companies or organizations that have donated monetarily, athletic supplies, equipment or apparel to that school being some examples.
NIL activities cannot interfere with student-athletes’ academic obligations and team obligations and students cannot contract an agent. High schools or its employees are not allowed to help facilitate deals for student-athletes.
Amendments passed at Friday’s meeting will be officially enacted when they are published in the next WIAA Bulletin sometime in May.
Summer contact
Another amendment under the Rules of Eligibility, which was advanced as a recommendation of the Calendar and Contact Ad-Hoc Committee, expands the opportunities for summer coaching contact in all WIAA-sponsored sports.
What was once five contact days in the summer becomes a sanctioned coaching contact period of June 1-30 and July 7-31. For this coming summer, 11-man football contact must end July 26.
The rule still stresses that summertime contact must remain voluntary.
The amendment passed 294-106, but there was some back-and-forth discussion on the item.
Those who spoke in favor of the amendment touted the common start and end dates, the fact at least half of US states allow similar amounts of summer contact and increased local control over the contact that does take place in the summer.
“This gives us more flexibility as ADs,” Mount Horeb athletic director Kolleen Nesheim said during the meeting’s open forum. “We are going to have more local control and hoping that we see our student-athletes in our gyms or on our fields in the summer with the coaches that we hired. We hired coaches that are experts in their sport. They are trained in CPR. They have taken the courses. That’s who I want my student-athletes working with in the summer.”
Cody Schultz, athletic director at Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam and former athletic director at Fall River, spoke out most vehemently against the amendment. His points of contention were burnout by coaches and athletes, sports specialization, coach in-fighting for athletes and facilities, finances and his interpretation from results of a survey done last fall on the issue that showed 47% of Wisconsin students wanted increased coaching contact in the summer.
“I remember in my time at the public school,” Schultz said during the open forum. “I would talk to kids and say are you excited about your summer, do you have any vacation? These kids were not looking forward to summer because there was non-school coaching contact already pushed up against all of the contact days they had. They never had a chance to reset and it burned them out. I know we can say it’s voluntary but most people know what voluntary really means for different people.”
“It gives local control for how much contact will be permitted at your local school,” Altoona athletic director Andrew Caudill said when the motion was actually up for discussion. “Every school can do what is best for its local community. At Altoona, we’re going to utilize summer school to bring in money into our district and also help compensate our coaches. Athletes will get more time with their own coaches and specifically, it will give athletes more opportunities that do not have the means to pay for outside opportunities in the summer. It will be easier for us to monitor as athletic directors versus our current system, which is a blended model of five contact days plus all of the non-school contact that is happening.”
Cross country petition
An amendment to remove cross country from the WIAA’s competitive balance plan was rejected 241-161. It made the meeting agenda through a petition driven by the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association.
Colby co-athletic director and cross country coach Bryon Graun, the past president of the WCCCA, presented the argument for the petition, saying the majority of cross country coaches have never viewed competitive balance as an issue in their sport and in the cases this past fall where girls and boys teams in a program were split up due to one of them getting bumped up a division “created logistical nightmares” for head coaches. He noted of the 434 programs in Wisconsin, 354 have one head coach for boys and girls.
In 2024, the first year where competitive balance divisional adjustments took place, sectional meets were held on Friday and Saturday of that weekend to allow for those coaches to attend both meets. Colby was one example where a Division 2 meet was held Friday and a Division 3 meet has held Saturday.
“No other state in the nation splits cross country teams by gender for tournament play,” Graun said. “No college system does it either. It isn’t what’s best for our athletes, teams and coaches.”
Elkhorn athletic director John Handel and Doug Parker, administrator of the Big Foot School District, both spoke out against the petition stating allowing one team sport out of the competitive balance plan would set a bad precedent.
“From the outset the (competitive balance) committee had one clear goal to create a system that is fair and equitable for all schools, all sports, all genders, public, private, large, small,” Handel said.
“Only 14 teams were promoted (in 2024) with one of those schools winning a state championship,” Parker said. “The data we’ve collected over two seasons show that cross country is not being affected at a higher rate than other sports. Only nine out of 867 teams will be promoted next fall. That is 1%.”
Other amendments
There were two other amendments voted on Friday.
An amendment impacting the WIAA bylaws received membership approval by a 335-67 tally. In addition to the current one-game suspension, a spectator ejected from a contest is now required to complete the free online NFHS Sportsmanship Course available on the NFHSLearn.com website. The completed course certificate must be submitted to school officials before attending any future home athletic events.
In an amendment to the WIAA Constitution, the membership voted 39317 to allow ninth-grade teams to play the same number of contests as allowed in the season regulations for junior varsity and varsity teams.
