Playoff division breakdown

A while back an anonymous comment asked if any teams may switch divisions come playoff time.

To clear a few things up, technically there are no divisions for football in the regular season. The divisions created by the rankings serve that purpose only and are determined by seperating all schools by enrollment. 224 schools make the playoffs. The largest 32 are placed in Division 1, the next 32 are in Division 2 and so on.

While this sometimes is reflected in the football playoff pairings, often times you have a team jump up a division or drop down.

Looking at the teams in our area, there are a few that could change divisions.

WLA is one of the smaller teams in Division 4. If a large number of teams in the first three divisions qualify for the playoffs, the Vikings could find themselves as one of the larger teams in Division 5.

Ripon was one of the biggest schools in Division 4 last year. In fact, during last year's WIAA Division 3 state championship game, I ran into coach Rick Kelm, who had just won the D4 championship the night before. He told me that it was only a matter of time before Ripon's expanding enrollment pushed the Tigers into Division 3.

Although it's no longer a team in our area, Horicon may play up a division as well. It is one of the larger schools in Division 5, and according to one playoff matrix I've seen, it is currently the largest playoff-eligible school in the division.