WIAA makes preliminary ruling on conference realignment requests involving area schools

The WIAA conference realignment task force reviewed non-football applications from 20 schools, including six from greater Milwaukee area programs, at Tuesday's preliminary meeting of the 2023-24 realignment process in Stevens Point.

Two area non-football requests were forwarded to the WIAA board of control as proposed, including: independent program Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy joining the Lake City Conference and Kettle Moraine Lutheran moving from the East Central Conference to the Metro Classic Conference.

Waukesha North and Waukesha South each made requests for conference realignment for all sports other than football from the Classic 8 to the Woodland Conference as well, which were approved with unspecified modifications.

Two area requests that were denied were Oak Creek attempting to move from the Southeast Conference to the Greater Metro, and St. Augustine Preparatory Academy attempting to move from the Lake City Conference to the Midwest Classic.

A request from Ripon to move from the East Central Conference to the South Central was also approved with modifications that included Berlin moving to the East Central, Waupun to the Capitol, and Plymouth and Kewaskum to the North Shore Conference.

Schools that had requests denied can provide written feedback or appear virtually at a Jan. 4 meeting of the realignment task force.

All approved requests will be forwarded to the WIAA board of control for final approval at a task force meeting on Jan. 11, and would take effect in the fall of the 2025-26 school year. The board of control will vote to approve, deny or send back those proposals for further review at its meeting on March 5.

The full list of 20 schools' requests is available on the WIAA website.