STEVENS POINT, Wis. — Greenfield High School and Madison West High School football teams were incorrectly left out of the bracket in the 2024 playoffs, according to a statment released by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association today.
The WIAA acknowledged that “challenges occurred with the computer program, which was unable to process the full field of 224 teams. Staff manually finalized the qualifiers using the criteria outlined in the regulations.”
If tiebreaker procedures had been followed correctly, Greenfield and Madison West should have been in the field instead of Pewaukee and Madison Edgewood.
“Since the evening that the playoff field was determined, staff has collected data and historic information regarding the playoff qualifying language. In addition, corrective measures were taken to allow the program to complete its process.”
The statement goes on to say the WIAA will review its qualification language and make internal procedural improvements, including a written procedure. It also says the technology team is evaluating its qualification software and will develop a new program if needed.
Today’s statement contradicts what the WIAA said in October when playoff brackets were released; that qualifying standards were correctly applied to tied teams.
According to the WIAA rule book, tiebreaker procedures involve ranking teams in the order of the combined won-lost percentage for conference games only. But for the 2024 playoffs, the WIAA included non-conference games, which resulted in Madison West, Greenfield and McFarland being left out of the playoffs.
The WIAA has come under other scrutiny this year, when it initially ruled that a Campbellsport High School track star was ineligible to participate in varsity events because his parents live in Africa.Â
