Parity.
It’s the issue that is continually brought up in South Dakota high school football, and will be for the remainder of time. Pierre has won 5 straight state titles, while Canistota/Freeman recently won 3.
Those in the state have many opinions on how these groups should be split up in a way that is fair. Some say 11AAA and 11AA should be combined. Many 11AA schools disagreed, citing facilities and budgets that cannot compete with Sioux Falls schools. Others say that success should factor into play like some states, meaning a jump in classes for schools like Pierre.
In 9-Man, there is a reasonable argument to go to 2 classes, but again, smaller schools disagreed, citing facilities, budgets and roster sizes that cannot compete with larger schools.
And with such great variance of enrollment sizes in schools, classifications in the 605 have some of the smallest team numbers in the Midwest, meaning teams have the opportunity to repeat dominance with less roadblocks along the way.
To put into perspective, here are the number of teams in each class for the 2021 football season:
- 11AAA: 9
- 11AA: 11
- 11A: 15
- 11B: 29
- 9AA: 21
- 9A: 21
- 9B: 20
To combat this lack of parity, the state decided to change enrollment factors for classifications, with Free and Reduced Lunch per student (FRLP) playing a key role in the final destination of each school. This is in hope of putting teams in classes that best fit their enrollment and ability to field a competitive team.
Here is the new rule if you want to look:
So, we decided to take a look at what classifications look like with these new numbers. Below, we give you a ballpark estimate of where teams will be. It’s important to note that these numbers are using enrollment numbers for the most recent classification cycle, but the FRLP numbers are from a study done by South Dakota State in 2019.
We used these numbers because they were the most recent publicly-available information that was easily accessible. Again, this isn’t a perfect match and won’t be the official numbers, but we wanted to have an idea of where schools might be. For ADM, we used Male ADM in accordance with the SDHSAA 2021-22 Classification & Alignments. Remember, this is a fun thought experiment, and not the official numbers or classifications. This is a just a look at where teams may end up, and if this could be a better system than what we have today.
A couple other notes:
- Private schools were not used in the SDSU numbers. All private schools were given 100% of their Male ADM. It quite literally had no real effect on any private schools’ individual classifications, so all stayed the same.
- For schools that were listed at 90%+, we used 100% FRLP.
- For Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson, we used the most recent enrollment numbers available. There is no enrollment numbers for Jefferson on the ADM, however, the enrollment for all Sioux Falls public schools is big enough that they are guaranteed to compete in 11AAA. The sources article from KELOLand helped us find the numbers, taking the ADM number and split in half for Male/Female ADM.
Sources:
Male ADM: https://www.sdhsaa.com/average-daily-memberships/
KELOLand SF Enrollment: https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/how-many-students-are-in-your-kids-class/
11AAA
SDHSAA Classification: 8 Largest Schools + O’Gorman
| Rapid City Central | 736.846 |
| Rapid City Stevens | 704.085 |
| Sioux Falls Lincoln | 614.631 |
| Sioux Falls Roosevelt | 601.074 |
| Sioux Falls Washington | 588.837 |
| Sioux Falls Jefferson | 558.900 |
| Brandon Valley | 527.998 |
| Harrisburg | 490.622 |
| O’Gorman | 265.978 |
Nothing changed in this list, though we did note in the earlier section that we had to ballpark some of the Sioux Falls schools numbers until Jefferson is included in the ADM.
There really isn’t anything exciting and I will discuss this a little more in Class AA.
11AA
SDHSAA Classification: Next 11 Largest Schools
| Aberdeen Central | 470.408 |
| Watertown | 444.817 |
| Brookings | 369.869 |
| Yankton | 354.100 |
| Mitchell | 320.508 |
| Douglas | 309.964 |
| Pierre T.F. Riggs | 302.049 |
| Sturgis Brown | 288.174 |
| Spearfish | 279.032 |
| Huron | 268.650 |
| Tea Area | 213.463 |
Ok, we do need to have the conversation of Aberdeen Central and Watertown playing in Class AA. Currently, Tea Area has just 45.38% of the enrollment of Aberdeen.
Aberdeen and Watertown, meanwhile, have 63.84% and 60.37% of RC Central’s enrollment, respectively. Those two schools then are closer to RC Central than Tea Area is to them.
And with Aberdeen and Watertown moving up to a class that until very recently they were in, this puts Brookings at the top of 11AA. The difference between Brookings and Tea Area is 57.71%, right on par with Aberdeen and Watertown’s comparison to RC Central.
You couldn’t bump up West Central, as they sit at 43.29% of Brookings enrollment, but you could stay with 11 in 11AAA and 9 in 11AA.
Now, I understand the argument that Aberdeen and Watertown would do more good in 11AA. I am not saying I disagree or agree with the argument. Simply from an enrollment perspective, they are closer to the top of 11AAA than they are to the bottom of 11AA, and it’s by a significant margin.
11A
SDHSAA Classification: Next 14 Largest Schools
| West Central | 160.132 |
| Belle Fourche | 158.792 |
| Sioux Falls Christian | 146.670 |
| Vermillion | 142.029 |
| Lennox | 141.666 |
| Dakota Valley | 140.307 |
| Madison | 116.901 |
| Milbank | 110.055 |
| Canton | 109.169 |
| Tri-Valley | 104.570 |
| Dell Rapids | 100.886 |
| Chamberlain | 99.568 |
| Sisseton | 99.195 |
| Beresford | 97.785 |
Now, we have our first changes due to the new enrollment factors. Beresford would become an 11A school, while Custer would drop to an 11B school. Beresford did make the semifinals last year at 11B as the #14 seed, finishing with a 7-4 record. It’s worth stating that Beresford will actually be in 11A this 2022, and Sisseton is dropping down to 11B for the upcoming season.
Another team changing classes, Lakota Tech would also be in 11B under this format. This would leave Beresford at 61% enrollment of West Central, which is a pretty comparable split to 11B. I would see this as a reasonable class.
Now, let’s take a look at 11B, where there would be some bigger changes.
11B
SDHSAA Classification: All Remaining Schools with ADM 56.001 and greater
| Custer | 97.376 |
| Lakota Tech | 93.373 |
| Hamlin | 86.614 |
| Hot Springs | 85.930 |
| Lead-Deadwood | 83.365 |
| Elk Point-Jefferson | 82.088 |
| Flandreau | 76.556 |
| Redfield | 75.176 |
| Sioux Valley | 73.974 |
| Rapid City Christian | 71.965 |
| Winner | 71.374 |
| MC/M | 70.106 |
| M/H-H | 70.039 |
| T-D/A/AC/DC | 67.667 |
| Mobridge-Pollock | 67.452 |
| W/WS/SC | 66.571 |
| Baltic | 66.689 |
| Dakota Hills | 66.676 |
| C/WL | 66.472 |
| Groton Area | 64.864 |
| B-E/E | 63.772 |
| Hill City | 62.539 |
| Parker | 60.498 |
| Jim River | 58.779 |
| St. Thomas More | 55.059 |
| Roncalli | 41.960 |
Now, here are some changes! Custer, Lakota Tech and Hamlin would join the class under these rules. I believe that Hamlin does have an exemption that allows them to move down to 9-man, and with the split in this experiment that would move them to 9AA and nothing else would really change. (Again, important to note, this is just a look at where teams MIGHT be and how the rules could affect schools. Nothing here is final.)
Teams that would leave the class, Bennett County, Deuel, Wagner, Webster Area, and Mount Vernon/Plankinton, are assumed to choose to go down to 9-Man. Any of them could stay, but again for this exercise, we moved them down.
We choose to keep STM and Roncalli at this class, because they are either already choosing to play up (Roncalli) or will play up pretty much no matter the enrollment (STM).
This would leave a 26-team class with a 60% total between the smallest school and largest school, not counting STM and Roncalli. Again, I think this is a reasonable class differential, and the numbers work out well so far.
9AA
SDHSAA Classification: Top 1/3 of 9-Man Schools
| Deuel | 55.691 |
| Wagner | 55.020 |
| Webster Area | 54.894 |
| Parkston | 54.878 |
| Bon Homme | 53.670 |
| MV/P | 53.621 |
| F/M/FA | 52.226 |
| Garretson | 51.984 |
| Hanson | 49.623 |
| Stanley County | 49.003 |
| Ipswich | 47.511 |
| Platte-Geddes | 45.755 |
| Florence/Henry | 45.356 |
| Deubrook Area | 45.115 |
| Bennett County | 44.270 |
| North Central | 44.164 |
| Elkton-Lake Benton | 44.123 |
| Chester Area | 43.860 |
| Viborg-Hurley | 43.577 |
| Timber Lake | 40.439 |
| Lemmon/McIntosh | 39.736 |
| Howard | 39.293 |
I think this would be a pretty interesting class. You have all the former 11-Man schools, along with 2021 9A champion Howard at the bottom. The only other teams moving up would be the new Co-Op of Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy, and North Central.
That puts 9AA at 8 new teams out of the 22 in the class, but a bottom-to-top enrollment ratio of 70.56%. I personal think this would be a pretty exciting class!
9A
SDHSAA Classification: Middle 1/3 of 9-Man Schools
| Great Plains Lutheran | 39.248 |
| Leola/Frederick Area | 38.847 |
| Britton-Hecla | 38.408 |
| Castlewood | 37.257 |
| Northwestern | 37.128 |
| Lyman | 36.897 |
| Kimball/White Lake | 36.895 |
| De Smet | 36.748 |
| Burke | 36.45 |
| White River | 36.183 |
| Arlington | 35.936 |
| Wall | 35.537 |
| Iroquois/Lake Preston | 35.274 |
| Wolsey-Wessington | 35.039 |
| Oldham-Ramona/Rutland | 34.836 |
| Dupree | 34.059 |
| Philip | 33.94 |
| Warner | 33.74 |
| Newell | 32.935 |
| Gregory | 31.506 |
| Irene-Wakonda | 31.299 |
| Potter County | 31.153 |
| Herreid/Selby Area | 31.084 |
Leola/Frederick Area, White River, Arlington, Iroquois/Lake Preston, Dupree and Lyman would drop from 9AA in this situation, while Potter County would join from 9B. It is worth noting that Arlington and Lake Preston are splitting from their co-op.
Again though, a good bottom-to-top enrollment ratio of 79.38%.
9B
SDHSAA Classification: Bottom 1/3 of 9-Man Schools
| Colman-Egan | 30.723 |
| Alcester-Hudson | 30.341 |
| New Underwood | 29.979 |
| Kadoka Area | 29.843 |
| Centerville | 29.767 |
| Faith | 29.034 |
| Avon | 28.717 |
| Sully Buttes | 28.539 |
| Waverly-South Shore | 27.597 |
| Faulkton Area | 26.498 |
| Hitchcock-Tulare | 26.247 |
| Harding County/Bison | 26.178 |
| Estelline/Hendricks | 26.138 |
| Gayville-Volin | 25.288 |
| Corisca-Stickney | 23.927 |
| St. Mary | 22.220 |
| Canistota | 22.157 |
| Edgemont | 21.426 |
| Colome | 20.181 |
| Jones County | 18.716 |
| Sioux Falls Lutheran | 15.014 |
| Langford Area | 14.195 |
| Sunshine Bible Academy | 7.667 |
Edgemont and SFL did not field a team last season, but were still included in the standings last year at 0-0, so if they do come back, this is where they would be.
Some other new changes come about with the inclusion of Colman-Egan, Centerville, Kadoka Area and…CANISTOTA?!
Yep you read that right, Canistota is breaking off their successful engagement with Freeman in 9AA and will be playing in 9A in 2023. Under the new classifications, however, that would put them in 9B.
How would this play out? To be honest, I have no idea. Canistota broke off from their co-op in hopes of chasing more championships, and they feel that ending that relationship would put them in the best spot. And adding another excellent team to this class would make it super fun to see!
Overall, when looking at the changes, I don’t think this will be too bad. There is virtual no changes at the top, but in 9-man we are seeing about a third of each class switch around. Plus, we get an exciting change with Canistota playing in 9B.
Again, this is just a fun thought experiment, with no real impact this season. It’s always important to look at how new rules will change the landscape of South Dakota sports, and this gives us a good look at what might be to come for the 605.