The Board of Directors for the South Dakota High School Activities Association approved its final reading of a proposal on Thursday, officially signing off to move the High School State Football Championships to Dana J Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings for the fall of 2019.
This decision comes as a result of renovations currently taking place at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion. The construction project will limit the seating capacity of the Dakota Dome – approximately 5,200 seats. In fact, the entire west side of the venue will be unsuable.
“We became aware this past October that the west side of the [dome] was not going to be available to us,” explained SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Krogstrand. “We monitored it through the state championships this past year and had discussions about accommodating our large student crowds, especially for the larger classes.”
The discussion to move the state football championships to Brookings first became public in late February, and they’ve only became more serious as time progressed.
Another significant change to the schedule for the event this fall is it’s being modified to fit into just two days, not the usual three. Thursday November 14 will consist of four games, while Friday November 15 will play the remaining three. South Dakota State University is scheduled to host the University of Northern Iowa on Saturday afternoon.
The Dakota Dome in Vermillion has hosted the high school football finals in South Dakota since 1981. This agreement with Brookings is only a one-year contract, meaning the event plans to return to Vermillion in the fall of 2020.
Also approved at the June 6 SDHSAA Board of Directors meeting was the use of instant replay review, under certain circumstances, at both the state high school football championships and at the state high school basketball tournaments.
