PIERRE – South Dakota will return to a seven-class structure for high school football in 2021. The classification proposal was approved Wednesday by the South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors.
Schools with the top eight male average daily memberships (ADM) will be in 11AAA, along with O’Gorman. 11AA will have the next 11, including Pierre. The next 14 will be in 11A, and the remaining schools with a male ADM over 56.001 will be in 11B. Stanley County’s male ADM is below that cutoff point, so the Buffaloes will return to nine-man football after four seasons playing in 11-man football.
Nine-man football will be in three classes, but this is the first enrollment cycle where there will be fewer than 64 nine-man teams. SDHSAA by-laws provide that if there are fewer than 64 nine-man teams for two straight alignment periods, then there would be two nine-man classes. In other words, there will again be three nine-man classes for the 2022 & 2024 seasons, but there could possibly be just two in 2024.
This classification cycle will last just one year instead of the normal two to align South Dakota with its neighboring states.
Projected 11-man classifications:
11AAA
Brandon Valley, Harrisburg, O’Gorman, Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Sioux Falls Jefferson, Sioux Falls Lincoln, Sioux Falls Roosevelt, Sioux Falls Washington
11AA
Pierre, Aberdeen Central, Brookings, Douglas, Huron, Mitchell, Spearfish, Sturgis, Tea Area, Yankton, Watertown
11A
Chamberlain, Belle Fourche, Canton, Custer, Dakota Valley, Dell Rapids, Lennox, Madison, Milbank, Sioux Falls Christian, Sisseton, Tri-Valley, Vermillion, West Central
11B
Miller/Highmore-Harrold, Mobridge-Pollock, Winner, Aberdeen Roncalli, Baltic, Bennett County, Beresford, Bridgewater/Emery-Ethan, Dakota Hills, Deuel, Elk Point-Jefferson, Flandreau, Groton Area, Hill City, Hot Springs, Lead-Deadwood, McCook Central/Montrose, Parker, Mt. Vernon/Plankinton, Rapid City Christian, Redfield, Scotland/Menno, Sioux Valley, St. Thomas More, Wagner, Webster Area
Along with Stanley County, Garretson moves down to nine-man. Woonsocket/Wessington Springs/Sanborn Central is awaiting its co-op ADM figures and has not yet been classified.
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