Next week, the South Dakota High School Activities Association will recommend its board of directors pass a proposal to move to five classes of high school football in South Dakota. This comes despite the overall number of activities directors in the state opposing the proposal.
In an interview with the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos said “anything [regarding lower the football classes] was going to be really hard to pass [by the activities directors. From our perspective, we really have to do something because without that, we could have some big issues with numbers, particularly in 11AA.”
In March, the AD’s voted against the five class football proposal by a margin of 77-58. Roughly two-thirds of the 9-man representatives voted against it, but among the 11-man voters, there was a slight edge in favor of the proposal.
This new proposal would eliminate one 11-man class and one 9-man class, meaning there would be three classes of 11-man football and two classes of 9-man football in South Dakota. By this model, 11AA would include the nine largest schools, plus O’Gorman, 11A would be the next 16 largest schools, and then 11B would consist of the remaining schools whose Average Daily Membership of male students is 56 or higher.
For the two 9-man classes, they’d be split down the middle. Those with higher male ADM in one class and those with lower male ADM in another.
The SDHSAA board of directors would have to pass two readings of this proposal for it to go into effect. If it passes, it would go into effect for the Fall of 2021. The SDHSAA board of directors meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday April 21.
