7.
It’s the unspoken elephant in the room, and the adjective that is quick to warrant an opinion in South Dakota.
Don’t believe me?
Let’s talk 7 classes. Or 7 straight championships from Pierre.
There we go, that’s the reaction we were looking for.
But the truth is, under all that dislike of the number 7, there is some deep American roots growing…
Competitiveness.
In American sports, we love competitiveness (sorry F1 and Premier League fans). And when we look at the state of SD football, we see a lack of competitiveness.
But what if I told you today, that there is a system that gives you the competitiveness you want, and still allows a lot of teams to get into the playoffs.
Let’s make a quick trip south and see if we can find the answer.
First, we need to understand why there is 7 classes in the first place. And the answer to that question is distribution.
South Dakota has a small population (duh) which means fewer schools in a similar range of school sizes all the other states. Think about it for a moment, what state doesn’t have schools that have a 1,000 kids and schools that have 30?
That one isn’t hard to figure out.
The problem then is South Dakota has the same school size distribution but with less schools. That makes for less teams across the board.
However, competitiveness in football does not necessarily depend on the number of teams, but the amount of athletes.
And while you may disagree, you can ask yourself this…who would win more games, Central in 11B or Hot Springs in 11AAA? (Also, no disrespect to the Bison. They are a great team.)
Now, there is obvious variation of talent within these levels. In bigger states, that is no problem. In a smaller state, however, that means the number of teams who can win championships is limited in an already small class.
But even if the system we currently have does make sense when considering the circumstances, public resentment is forcing a change.
This change, however, doesn’t have to be big. Small tweaks are what is going to fix this, not massive reclassification.
So may I present a system with 6 classes. These classes keep teams within a competitive enrollment distribution, without the knee-jerk reaction of eliminating and combining classes like a freaky science project.
And where can these mysterious classifications be found?
Right in our backyard.
When looking at various state systems, I realized Nebraska’s was by far the most useful and connected to South Dakota’s. They have a similar class structure to what we already have, but they have larger class sizes and ranges. That’s just what we are looking for.
So I went ahead and looked at where each SD school would be in this system, and it’s….perfect?
I mean seriously this is the best we will get. It’s competitive, it’s structured well, and it absolutely works.
Here are rules:
- We are looking at Boys Enrollment for grades 9-11.
- Enrollment is combined for the programs listed that are in a co-op.
- Classes look like this:
- A = 11AAA
- B = 11AA
- C1 = 11A
- C2 = 11B
- D1 = 9AA
- D2 = 9A
- D6 = 9B
- This is experimental and the numbers/classes in this article are not final.
All other rules will be explained. Let’s start with Class A.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Sioux Falls Washington | 768 | A |
| Rapid City Central | 765 | A |
| Sioux Falls Lincoln | 733 | A |
| Sioux Falls Jefferson | 712 | A |
| Rapid City Stevens | 688 | A |
| Sioux Falls Roosevelt | 670 | A |
| Harrisburg | 583 | A |
| Brandon Valley | 527 | A |
| Aberdeen Central | 513 | A |
| Watertown | 479 | A |
| O’Gorman | 273 | A |
For this class, I did every school that would be in Nebraska’s Class A.
As you’ll see later on, the addition of bringing teams into higher classes is going to solve some of that competitiveness problem.
You want Central to play some other teams that aren’t from the Sioux Falls area? There you go.
This system allows the Cobblers to have winnable games, while still playing the AAA powerhouses.
And I think it’s good for Watertown and Aberdeen too. In no other state would they not be playing these teams. Good work from the system, now let’s move to Class B.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Sturgis Brown | 373 | B |
| Yankton | 369 | B |
| Mitchell | 367 | B |
| Brookings | 360 | B |
| Huron | 339 | B |
| Douglas | 332 | B |
| Pierre T.F. Riggs | 324 | B |
| Spearfish | 303 | B |
| Tea Area | 246 | B |
| Lakota Tech | 211 | B |
| Belle Fourche | 180 | B |
| West Central | 177 | B |
| Dakota Valley | 167 | B |
Again, increased competition all around. You get some really strong additions to the top and enough teams that making the playoffs are actually a challenge.
Note: This would be every team that would play in Nebraska’s Class B.
For Class C1 & C2, the state takes every remaining 11-man team and divides them in two. C1 would essentially be the bottom of 11A and the top of 11B. That’s 28 schools, including Hamlin.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Sioux Falls Christian | 151 | C1 |
| Vermillion | 150 | C1 |
| Lennox | 149 | C1 |
| Sisseton | 136 | C1 |
| Madison | 134 | C1 |
| Dell Rapids | 130 | C1 |
| Milbank | 127 | C1 |
| Canton | 127 | C1 |
| Chamberlain | 113 | C1 |
| Pine Ridge | 112 | C1 |
| Custer | 111 | C1 |
| Beresford | 111 | C1 |
| Tri-Valley | 107 | C1 |
| Hamlin | 103 | C1 |
| Flandreau | 97 | C1 |
| Rapid City Christian | 91 | C1 |
| Lead-Deadwood | 90 | C1 |
| Elk Point-Jefferson | 90 | C1 |
| Aberdeen Roncalli | 89 | C1 |
| Hot Springs | 88 | C1 |
| Winner | 83 | C1 |
| Dakota Hills | 81 | C1 |
| T-D/A/AC/DC | 80 | C1 |
| Mobridge-Pollock | 79 | C1 |
| M/H-H | 79 | C1 |
| B/E-E | 77 | C1 |
| MC/M | 76 | C1 |
| Wagner | 75 | C1 |
I know the Chargers have some exemption, but no changes in this round. We need to see the field before any adjustments.
But wait there is only like 35 teams in the bottom of 11A and all of 11B. Where are the rest of the C2 teams from?
Well my friends, we have too many 9-man teams.
In this system, the bigger schools in 9AA can field competitive 11-man teams. They would be going up against schools very much their size, and the state agrees. Any team over 48 countable male students (9-11) would be in C2.
And again, the system looks terrific.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Baltic | 74 | C2 |
| W/WS/SC | 74 | C2 |
| Redfield | 72 | C2 |
| Groton Area | 71 | C2 |
| Sioux Valley | 70 | C2 |
| Hill City | 69 | C2 |
| Deuel | 69 | C2 |
| MV/P | 68 | C2 |
| F/M/FA | 67 | C2 |
| St. Thomas More | 65 | C2 |
| Parker | 64 | C2 |
| Scotland/Menno | 64 | C2 |
| Florence/Henry | 63 | C2 |
| Estelline/Hendricks | 63 | C2 |
| C/WL | 63 | C2 |
| Webster Area | 61 | C2 |
| K/WL | 56 | C2 |
| Garretson | 55 | C2 |
| Parkston | 54 | C2 |
| Bon Homme | 54 | C2 |
| Lemmon/McIntosh | 54 | C2 |
| Elkton-Lake Benton | 52 | C2 |
| Dupree | 52 | C2 |
| White River | 50 | C2 |
| Howard | 49 | C2 |
| Bennett County | 49 | C2 |
| Viborg-Hurley | 48 | C2 |
| L/FA | 48 | C2 |
Finally, we get to the 9-man schools. D1 and D2 is again split evenly. Again, I have no notes. It’s just beautiful.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Ipswich | 47 | D1 |
| Stanley County | 46 | D1 |
| Britton-Hecla | 46 | D1 |
| Wall | 45 | D1 |
| Platte-Geddes | 45 | D1 |
| Great Plains Lutheran | 44 | D1 |
| Hanson | 43 | D1 |
| Timber Lake | 42 | D1 |
| Gregory | 42 | D1 |
| Chester | 42 | D1 |
| Harding County | 42 | D1 |
| Wolsey-Wessington | 41 | D1 |
| Colman-Egan | 41 | D1 |
| Waverly-South Shore | 40 | D1 |
| Northwestern | 40 | D1 |
| Lyman | 39 | D1 |
| Philip | 38 | D1 |
| Deubrook Area | 38 | D1 |
| Hitchcock-Tulare | 38 | D1 |
| Centerville | 37 | D1 |
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Iroquois/Lake Preston | 37 | D2 |
| Warner | 37 | D2 |
| Newell | 36 | D2 |
| Oldham-Ramona-Rutland | 35 | D2 |
| Castlewood | 35 | D2 |
| Canistota | 35 | D2 |
| Burke | 35 | D2 |
| Alcester-Hudson | 35 | D2 |
| New Underwood | 34 | D2 |
| H/SA | 34 | D2 |
| Irene-Wakonda | 33 | D2 |
| Gayville-Volin | 32 | D2 |
| De Smet | 32 | D2 |
| Potter County | 32 | D2 |
| Kadoka Area | 31 | D2 |
| Faulkton Area | 31 | D2 |
| Faith | 31 | D2 |
| Arlington | 31 | D2 |
| Sully Buttes | 30 | D2 |
| Avon | 28 | D2 |
Finally, we have something experimental…
6-man.
I’m not sure if South Dakota is ready for it, and honestly the class size is too small. But Nebraska started with about 8 teams, and I could see some co-ops disappearing to make that happen.
If not, these teams move to D2, and the top of D2 gets bumped accordingly.
| School | Enrollment | Class |
| Corsica-Stickney | 22 | D6 |
| Jones County | 21 | D6 |
| Dell Rapids St. Mary | 21 | D6 |
| Colome | 19 | D6 |
| Sunshine Bible Academy | 7 | D6 |
So there you have it folks.
A system that makes every class more competitive, eliminates a 9-man class, and gives us everything we have been asking for.
Now, let’s make it happen.