News

Following the flurry of parliamentary action on amendments attempting to address competitive equity concerns during last year’s Annual Meeting, sentiments surfaced that the Success Factor model never received its opportunity for a vote by the membership.

Before the Success Factor model was brought to the floor for discussion, the amendment was replaced by a plan to implement a 1.65 multiplier on the enrollments of nonpublic schools in the membership for tournament placement, with an exception for single gender schools. Prior to the vote on the 1.65 multiplier proposal, however, another amendment surfaced from the floor that would reduce the multiplier from 1.65 to 1.25. That motion failed by a 297-134 vote. The motion to apply the 1.65 multiplier ultimately failed as well, 293-141. 

Still another amendment proposed to address competitive equity would have adjusted a school’s enrollment for tournament placement by factoring in its free and reduced lunch statistics. That plan was also struck down, failing by a 265-167 tally.

If approved, the Success Factor would add a step to determine tournament divisional placements in baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball by using a point system added to the previous year's enrollment beginning in 2017-18. As an overview, programs that accumulate no fewer than six points over the most recent three-year period are promoted to the next division from the previous year. If the number of Success Factor points drops to less than six points at any time, the promoted program will be placed back in the division that the school’s enrollment dictates.

The points to be awarded each year are:

Four for winning the State championship
Three for advancing to the State championship game and finishing runner-up
Two for advancing to the State semifinals
One for advancing to the State quarterfinals

Review the Success Factor amendment (amendment No. 2) for complete details.   

To recap what led up to last year’s Annual Meeting, the membership approved a motion at the 2014 Annual Meeting to defer implementation of a multiplier and to further study the concerns for competitive equity to an ad-hoc committee with an aggressive timeframe to develop a potential solution.

The ad-hoc committee formed quickly and worked diligently to research, gather data, and evaluate the information and various methods being used across the country. The committee then applied that information into developing a model that it determined would most appropriately address the concerns a segment of the membership possesses regarding competitive equity in relation to divisional placements. 

For those involved with high school sports over the past 16 years, there was little doubt that finding a panacea with the complexities of the competitive equity issue would be a challenge. Nevertheless, the committee’s effort and focus on first identifying and defining the issue was followed with extensive discussion of how best to attack and isolate the concern and begin development of a possible solution. 

At the December 2014 Board of Control meeting, the committee submitted its recommendation to advance the “Success Factor” model to the Annual Meeting for a membership vote. Prior to the 2015 Annual Meeting, members of the committee continued their service to the membership by explaining the plan to the Sports Advisory Committee, Advisory Council and Board of Control, as well as by creation a number of information resources, including a summary video.

The Board of Control, Advisory Council and Sports Advisory Committee took no position on the amendment.

To review the Success Factor Effect when applied 2000-2016, CLICK HERE

Additional details and resources on the Success Factor are available on the WIAA website at:  http://www.wiaawi.org/Schools/CompetitiveEquity.aspx