The Board of Directors of the South Dakota High School Activities Association made the decision to honor their Football Advisory Committee’s recommendation, that a subcommittee be created to come up with new classification proposals for high school football in the state.
Earlier in the meeting a motion was made to pass the original five class proposal of the Football Advisory Committee from late April. That vote tied at 4-4 with Barry Mann not submitting a vote. Because the vote didn’t obtain a majority, the motion failed.
The Board of Directors then switched its attention to the most recent motion from the Football Advisory Committee from their meeting in early May, which was to put together a new, and larger, committee to create a new classification proposal. This too was put to a vote, where it passed unanimously at 8-0.
“We as a staff will work with the current advisory committee members to make those determinations, as far as individuals who might be interested,” explained SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Dr. John Krogstrand. “And then expanding the committee to include basically those who are currently serving on the advisory, and then basically two from a [similar role] that we would get them somewhat geographically spread. Generally, with a preference to one of those people being west river.”
To simplify it, this geographical subcommittee of no more than one representative per district will be tasked with developing both a five class and a six class proposal by a deadline of November 1st. It’s likely that this new committee will consist of 15-18 members.
There has been discussion amongst the 9-man teams that the issue of football classifications in South Dakota is purely an 11-man issue, which is where the idea of a six class proposal came from. Rather than eliminate both an 11-man and 9-man class, a solution could entail eliminating just one 11-man class and calling it good. However, there is a requirement in the rule book as well that if the number of 9-man teams in South Dakota falls below 64 teams for two consecutive classification cycles, 9-man would automatically drop from three classes to two. The number of 9-man football teams in the Mt. Rushmore state currently sits at 67.
The November 1st deadline for these new proposals was put in place, because the SDHSAA Board of Directors have a meeting scheduled for November 4th, which would allow them to have both proposals to consider at that time.
