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The 2024 high school football season is just a few weeks away, but it's never too early to start thinking about the playoffs. Enrollment numbers determine divisional placement in the WIAA postseason, but unlike any other sport, football does not have pre-determined divisions at the start of the year. Instead, 224 teams qualify for the playoffs in various ways, and those qualifiers are then broken into 7 divisions of 32 teams each.

The WIAA has released the enrollment figures that will be used in determining this year's playoff divisional placements. These numbers include charter schools as well as co-op figures. In addition, for the first time, we must also apply the WIAA's Tournament Performance Factor points, which move up 13 teams by one division. Those teams are indicated in the "TPF Elevation" column below.

Based on those figures and the divisional cutlines from past seasons, we've advanced a very unofficial and very early list of divisional placement for all the teams in the state.

To determine the PROJECTED divisional cutlines, we took the average of each division's cutline from 2021 to 2023. We tweaked the 2021-23 data to account for cutlines increasing over the last several seasons. We weighted the most recent season more heavily in determining the average.

Other items that could impact the final division cutlines include several more teams making the move from 11-player to 8-player football, which could push the D6/7 cutline up higher. Also, there is uncertainty around several schools ability to offer a football team this fall.

Remember, these are just projections and official cutlines and divisional placements will NOT be determined until the final game of the regular season is completed.

We also have provided a list of the divisional cutlines going back to 2008 to show where those lines have been in the past and how they've changed in recent years.

We've also added enrollment figures for 8-player football. To be eligible for the 8-player playoffs, a team must have a three-year enrollment average of less than 200. Please note that we have not received full information on which teams may be ineligible for the 8-player postseason even with enrollments under 200 due to moving out of the normal cycle.

A few additional notes:

• Enrollments for the Illinois schools that are part of co-ops in the Wisconsin playoffs are included for all applicable teams.
• We have not received the full playoff eligibility list for 8-player. While we know that any 8-player teams over 200 are not eligible, there are others who may be ineligible because they moved to 8-player outside the designated time frame. The list below includes only teams that are eligible for the playoffs with a three-year enrollment average below 200.

Travis Wilson serves as the WisSports.net General Manager, Football Editor, and contributing writer for other parts of the site. 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 @travisWSN.

For the latest and most up to date football news and recruiting information, follow Travis on Twitter @travisWSN. Email story ideas, recruiting info, etc. to Travis at travis(at)wissports.net.