A wrench may have been thrown in the plans to have the Resch Center in Green Bay become the host site for the WIAA Boys and Girls State High School basketball tournaments. The WIAA is seeking an alternative site because the Kohl Center in Madison, home to the tournament since it opened, might not be available beginning in the spring of 2013. The University of Wisconsin hockey team is joining the newly formed Big Ten Hockey conference and playoff dates would conflict with the March basketball schedule. On Monday, the Big Ten moved closer toward adopting a neutral site format for it's hockey playoffs, exploring Joe Louis Arena in Detroit and the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. While that could open up the Kohl Center calendar, the WIAA still has concerns about a regular season weekend series in 2013 at the same time as the state wrestling tournament and the University's plan to bid on the NCAA Frozen Four Women's Hockey championships in 2014 and 2015. The Resch Center put forth a bid to host the basketball tournaments for five years beginning in 2013. The Big Ten advisory council is expected to finalize it's hockey playoff format later this month. The unresolved future scheduling issues could still push the WIAA toward the Resch Center for the state basketball tournaments.
