The WIAA has a potential venue conflict for the Boys Basketball State Tournament that could impact the event beginning in 2027 and going forward.
The Big Ten has changed its Men's Hockey Conference Tournament setup, beginning actually in 2026, that results in the top seed hosting the conference tournament final, which is set for the same weekend as the WIAA Boys Basketball State Tournament. This means that if the UW men's hockey team is the highest remaining seed, they would host the Big Ten tournament championship game, and UW would hold it at the Kohl Center, bumping the WIAA for the Friday night. Thursday and Saturday boys basketball state tournament days would be unaffected.
Most states that offer men’s hockey in the Big Ten do not have the potential for such conflict, as the high school associations in those states have state tournament schedules that do not line up with the Big Ten hockey tournament, the university has separate hockey and basketball facilities, or the state associations have gone away from hosting their events at college facilities where there could be unexpected conflicts.
The other challenge provided by this potential conflict is the timing. The Wisconsin mens hockey team would not know if they would qualify or host the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game until the Saturday before, which is sectional finals day for the WIAA boys basketball postseason.
The WIAA investigated several options, including moving at least one day of the boys basketball tournament to the UW Fieldhouse. However, there would be challenges with UW hosting both a men’s hockey championship game at the Kohl Center and the WIAA boys basketball tournament at that venue. Also, the seating capacity of the UW Fieldhouse is listed as just 7,540 (currently used for wrestling and womens volleyball), which would result in substantially smaller crowds for the boys state tournament, and thousands of people missing out on the change to attend. For comparison, the 2026 boys state tournament Friday evening session attracted over 12,000 to the Kohl Center.
While moving one day of the boys state tournament to other venues such as the UW Fieldhouse could have provided an option for the WIAA, they have instead identified a contingency that would adjust the first two dates for the boys state tournament, should the necessity arise. The first day would open on Wednesday, with the traditional Thursday schedule that would feature Division 3 semifinals in the afternoon followed by the Division 4 semifinals in the evening. Thursday would instead include the traditional Friday session, with D5 semis in the morning, D2 semis in the afternoon, and D1 semifinals in the evening.
Friday would be open for the WIAA boys basketball state tournament, as the UW would host the Big Ten Men’s Hockey Championship Game that evening. The Kohl Center staff would then convert from the hockey configuration back to basketball in time for the WIAA Boys Basketball State Championship games to be held as normal.
So if a conflict arises in 2027 or beyond, the WIAA boys state tournament would change to a Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule, though the WIAA, teams, fans, and media would not know if this would occur until the Saturday before.
This creates logistical issues for teams perhaps, but likely ones that are doable. For fans of high school basketball who may be unattached to a specific team and often attend the tournament year-after-year as season ticket holders, their plans would be impacted significantly. Hotel stays, time off work, and many other logistical challenges would certainly be less than ideal.
However, given the options available, the date change for the first two days of the boys basketball state tournament were identified as the best option to provide a high quality state tournament experience and allow for the most amount of people to attend and support the teams.
The issue is compounded in 2030, when the calendar changes such that the Big Ten mens hockey semifinals would be the same weekend as the WIAA Boys Basketball State Tournament, meaning there’s a higher chance that the UW hockey team could be one of the two hosts for those contests.
Travis Wilson serves as the Bound Wisconsin Manager. Wilson was selected as part of the Sports 40 Under 40 list by Coach & AD Magazine and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association for 2019. The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) named Travis the 2015 recipient of the Dave McClain Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the WFCA Executive Board and is a member of the Executive Board of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association. A graduate of Richland Center High School and Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Travis was a three-sport athlete in high school (football, baseball, basketball), inducted to the Richland Center High School Hall of Fame in 2023, and currently resides in Reedsburg. You can follow him on Twitter at @travisBound or reach him at [email protected].
