The future of six-man football in South Dakota is unclear as the executive staff of the South Dakota High School Activities Association is now recommending it be postponed for both the 2019 and 2020 seasons. This recommendation is being sent to the SDHSAA Board of Directors, who will vote on the issue next week.
In a press release on Tuesday, SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director John Krogstrand released this statement…
“When surveyed in 2017, over 40 schools from our membership indicated an interest in the addition of six-man football beginning with the 2019 season. Over twenty school districts had serious conversations about going the six-man route for this coming fall. Despite that, only a handful have indicated a serious commitment to participating in six-man for the upcoming two seasons. We feel it is best to suspend the addition of a six-man football class for the time being, and continue with our current classification structure and regulations.”
Six-man football was scheduled to start in the fall of 2019 as its own class of high school football. The state would have kept a total of seven classes with four 11-man, two nine-man, and then a lone class of six-man. If the Board of Directors vote in favor of the recommendation, the format of three nine-man classes will remain the same for the next two years.
The SDHSAA Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday January 16th.
