On Friday, the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association released an updated table of how football conferences could look like in 2020, pending a vote by the WIAA at the Board of Control meeting on March 1.
From the WIFCA's website containing the proposal:
On February 6th, 2019, representatives from the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) met with representatives from the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) to finalize the football-only conference assignment recommendations after receiving updated eight-player and co-op declarations for the 2020 season. From the previous plan released in July of 2018, ( click here to view original proposal ), several schools and conferences were impacted by the adjustments. The committee also re-analyzed some previous assignments and reviewed feedback from those involved, adjusting a small number of other teams and conferences, where doing so did not create additional challenges.
You can view the updated plan below, or by going here .
Some of the notable changes statewide:
- In Madison, the Badger Conferences get divided by large and small schools. The original plan to move the Janesville schools into the Badger remains intact, but now it becomes a large-small alignment. Some of the other changes involve which schools go west and leave the Capitol or Rock Valley conferences, and some of the existing proposed changes, such as moving the smaller Rock Valley schools (displaced by adding in Edgewood and Monroe) into a new Capitol conference alignment with former Trailways and Capitol schools. However, the most significant impact will likely be the new Badger conference alignment.
- In Milwaukee, there aren't too many controversies. Geography took care of most of the alignment issues here.
- In Northern Wisconsin, a few of the notable changes include New Richmond moving to the Big Rivers Conference. The Cloverbelt, Dunn St. Croix, and Cloverwood get a makeover, with some long-time conference affiliations swapping in the new setup. Hurley goes from being an independent to joining the Lakeland, the conference that has been impacted the most statewide by the advent of 8-player football. Geographically, the Lakeland covers all of northern Wisconsin, as Grantsburg and Hurley are a three-hour drive apart.