Senate passes bill creating athletic conference realignment committee

The Iowa Senate on the floor approved House File 783, substituting it for Senate File 446, to require athletic associations to establish a conference realignment committee to resolve school requests for conference affiliation and to recommend alternatives if a request is rejected.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Salmon, senator from Bremer, told the chamber the measure grew out of problems in his and a neighboring senator’s districts involving Waverly-Shell Rock and Decorah high schools being denied membership in requested conferences under the Department of Education’s current mediation process. "They have not been directed to an appropriate satisfactory alternative con status, which reduces the competitive opportunities available to their students for extracurricular learning and awards," Salmon said. "What the bill does is, require the…