WIAA Basketball Committee recommends expanding state tournament

The WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee met in April and recommended some sweeping changes for the WIAA State Tournament.

The group is proposing expanding the boys' and girls' state basketball tournaments form the current 20-team, five division format to a 40-team, five division format that would advance eight teams in each division to the state tournament.

The expansion would necessitate more than one venue for state quarterfinal games on Wednesday of state-tournament week, and utilize the Kohl Center (boys) and Resch Center (girls) for the final two quarterfinals to be played on Thursday morning. The Thursday morning session has not been used since the WIAA went from four divisions to five for the state basketball tournament in 2011.

Potential sites for Wednesday quarterfinal games in Madison for the boys' tournament include the Alliant Energy Center, Madison College and Sun Prairie East while girls' quarterfinal sites might include the Resch Center, the Kress Center and St. Norbert College, among others.

The proposal now moves forward to the WIAA Sports Advisory Committee, which meets on May 19. Members of the Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee will present the idea to the Sports Advisory Committee, made up of 14 athletic directors from the state. The members of the Sports Advisory Committee then vote on the measure, but it advances to the Advisory Council regardless of their recommendation.

The Advisory Council is made up of 18 administrators from the state. The Advisory Council next meets June 24. And if that group moves the idea forward it would go to the WIAA Board of Control for a final decision on June 25. If the Advisory Council votes against the idea, it is dead and does not move forward.

There appears to be a chance implementation of the idea, should it pass all of the hurdles currently in front of it, could possible take place as early as the 2025-26 season.

The WIAA recently posted a message on its site under its basketball tournament assignment area that states ...

"This sport's tournament assignments will not be released until a later date due to coaches advisory proposals pending approval by the committee process: Sports Advisory, Advisory Council and Board of Control."

The WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee includes boys' coaches Sean Crider of Homestead, Todd Deschane of West DePere, Brent Larson of Hudson along with girls' coaches Dave Donarski of Aquinas, Kaleen McGettigan of Belmont and James Wright of Nicolet. Boys' coach Todd Fergot of La Crosse Central is the representative of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association on the committee.

A rundown of some of the positives associated with such a change have been outlined by the group behind the proposal at ...

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmNRkgaGo/uoME5bc9wBq9z5rEdw_xvg/view?utm_content=DAGmNRkgaGo&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=hfcbda4a366

There appears to be support for the idea.

Of more than 430 boys' and girls' coaches who responded to a survey asking if they were in favor of the proposed 8-8-8-8-8 format, 90.9 percent of the respondents said yes.

Additionally, some fans seem to like the idea.

In an informal poll I posted last weekend on X, 55.8 percent of just over 1,000 voters favored expanding the state tournament.

Those not in favor of the idea cited several factors:

** A "watering down" of the state-tournament field by doubling the number of teams that qualify for the event.

** Having more than one site for the state tournament, making it impossible to watch the entire state tournament.

** The potential loss of state-wide television for the entire tournament.

** The possibility for lost school time on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

** Needing to win three games in either three or four days to capture a state championship.