SDHSAA Board Approves Seven Classes of Football for 2021/2022

There will still be seven classes of high school football in South Dakota in 2021 and 2022.

The South Dakota High School Activities Association held its January Board of Directors meeting today (January 13). One of the major topics on the docket surrounded the second reading of the proposed football classes.

About a year ago, the SDHSAA tasked the football advisory committee with getting the number of classes of football from seven down to five or six. Months of discussion took place with multiple proposals brought to the table.

Once the discussions hit the activities directors across the state, the idea of going to five or six classes started to fail. 9-man schools did not want to combine into two classes (from the current three), and there was no agreement on the teams that would fill out the bottom of the current 11AAA or top of 11AA.

Because of all of that, the discussion quickly turned and South Dakota ended up back at seven classes. There are some adjustments from the 2019/2020 classifications including 11AAA featuring just the Sioux Falls metro area and Rapid City.

The top three classes breakdown like this.

11AAA (9):