The 2025 Wisconsin high school football season will have a different look when it comes to how teams qualify for the playoffs.
Earlier this week, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control voted in favor of using a matrix for playoff qualification and seeding that was submitted by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA). The new system is called the Wisconsin Football Playoff Matrix and is said to model the system currently being used in Ohio.
Below is a snippet on the WFCA website that sums-up why the change is being made:
The proposal comes in response to increased frustrations and concerns from coaches regarding playoff-related matters in recent seasons, including controversies around this year’s playoff qualifiers, how the regional groupings are determined, and what many feel were inconsistent or incorrect seeds for several teams.
The new plan doesn’t increase the number of teams that will qualify for the postseason. 32 teams will make the postseason each of the seven, 11-man classifications, which means 256 teams will head into the playoffs statewide.