Savage Words: I was wrong, Montana might just have the formula

It’s that time of year again.

Leaves changing, cool temps resulting in runny noses in the evening, the anticipation of sugar-induced rushes from Halloween, and of course, the ongoing debate about what South Dakota should do about its high school football alignment system.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about bringing back the old Sioux Interstate Conference, which includes schools from Sioux City, to help make things a tad bit more exciting for the larger schools in South Dakota during the regular season. I wrote that somewhat in jest, simply because I knew it would never happen. But at the same time, we’ve got to do something about South Dakota when it comes to class football alignment.

The playoffs in South Dakota actually started last weekend for the three 9-man classes, and Class 11B. The playoffs for Class 11A, 11AA and 11AAA begin this Thursday.

Dell Rapids St. Mary was ahead 56-0 at the end of the first quarter in their opening round 9B matchup last Thursday. They ended up beating Irene-Wakonda 72-6. 

Six years ago, Class 11AA No. 1 Pierre beat No. 8 Spearfish 103-0 … IN THE PLAYOFFS! 

That alone should end the argument of whether we have too many classes of football in South Dakota.

Because truly, we have too many.

But, I realize that will never change. There’s no going back now, although I think a lot of South Dakota’s ills could be cured by having one class of 9-man football, but it doesn’t matter. It will never be less than seven now, and we’ll have to live with it.

But something has to be done moving forward.

For years, I’ve been steadfast in the following argument: “Just get better.”

Don’t like losing by 103, Spearfish? Fine, get better.

Irene-Wakonda, you don’t want to get down 56-0 at the end of the first quarter? Fine, get better.

Last year, Brandon Valley defeated Sioux Falls Washington in the state’s largest class 35-6 to open the playoffs. Don’t like that, Warriors? Fine, get better.

But it’s clear that the “Just get better” argument doesn’t work.

For months, years probably, KWSN’s Nate Brown has been arguing against the current football alignment in South Dakota, which is completely enrollment based. 

The state’s largest nine schools in enrollment make up Class 11AAA. The next 11 schools are in Class 11AA, then the next 14 largest are in Class 11A. And so on.

Brown has been arguing for a long time that something has to change, likely because he’s based in Rapid City and he’s seen schools in his area get trampled every year.

I disagreed with him. 

Get better, I thought.

But he introduced me last week on one of his shows about what the state of Montana does. Montana’s classification isn’t based solely on school size.

That’s a part of it, for sure, but Montana also considers other factors.

Their breakdown looks like this:

35% roster size over the last four years

30% male enrollment

25% success factor (wins/losses)

10% Free and Reduced Lunch

Roster size makes sense. Rapid City Central is the state’s largest school with 1,488 students from grades 9-11. Of those 1,488 students, 523 are male, which is what the SDHSAA uses to determine classifications.

And of those 523 males, only 54 Cobblers are on the football team. That means 469 boys at Rapid City Central have no interest in going out and getting manhandled every week.

No wonder it’s so hard to build a program when it’s year-after-year of losing, and losing badly. Despite their school size, Central hasn’t had a winning season since 2006. Since that last winning season, the Cobblers are 35-127. They’re the only team in Class 11AAA to never play in the Dakota Dome for the state championship since the current playoff format was formed in 1981.

Under Montana’s formula, the Cobblers would likely drop to Class 11AA in the future. A team like Pierre, who has 85 players on their roster, would likely jump from 11AA to 11AAA.

Some argue that if these bigger schools were to drop to a smaller class under the Montana formula, that it wouldn’t be fair. But honestly, how ridiculous does that sound?

Do you think Rapid City Central, or Stevens, or Sioux Falls Roosevelt would drop to Class 11AA and dominate against teams like Yankton, or Watertown, or Huron? 

Not a chance, but at the very least, it gives teams who’ve suffered for a decade or more to start building a program again. Since 2020, Douglas – a school with 565 students – has gone 1-48 since 2020 in Class 11AA. This year alone, the Patriots have been outscored 452-26.

I think a realignment for Douglas to drop down a division might be long overdue. Montana’s formula would certainly get them there.

So publicly, here’s an admission of being wrong to Nate Brown and his show on KWSN.

He’s right – or at least – Montana is, I think.

Incidentally, Brandon Valley has 92 players on its roster, more than any other team in the state.

They welcome Roosevelt this Thursday in the opening round of the Class 11AAA playoffs. That one won’t be a hand-wringer. The Lynx will win handily, and it shouldn’t be such a cake walk in the playoffs.

Until we do something to fix the mismatches around the state, the first round of the playoffs will continue to look like this.

Needless to say, Dell Rapids St. Mary is safely into the second round. As will Brandon Valley.