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• The board approved that recommendation as well as the first reading of one that sets a seven classification field for football in South Dakota for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. How that seven-classification system could work will depend on numbers the SDHSAA gets from the S.D. Education Department about male student enrollment.
• An earlier proposal originally put forth by Krogstrand and board member Dan Whalen of Pierre would have created a six-classification system for football with four 11-man divisions and two nine-man divisions. This was not well-received, leading Krogstrand to offer the seven classification system.
• According to Krogstrand and Whalen, the likely scenario would be four 11-man divisions and three nine-man divisions.
• Whalen questioned the state of football in South Dakota, noting that the majority of schools field nine-man teams.
• "Is that where the state of South Dakota wants to be?" Whalen asked. "There's more opportunity to play when you're in 11-man football."
• Whalen said he hoped further study of the football landscape would find a way to provide some schools with the opportunity to form cooperatives. He said he knew of schools that shied away from cooperative agreements because they knew that the joining of two schools might put them in a higher classification of football.
• Avon Superintendent Tom Culver took exception to what he said he saw as the "onslaught against nine-man football, that it's less than football."
• Whalen said his push for more 11-man teams didn't have anything to do with the quality of football played by nine-man teams.
• Board member Todd Trask of Wall said his issue was the travel that nine-man teams were forced into during the tournament. "I think it's insane," Trask said of the current system that uses a seeding system that can send a team from one side of the state to play a team on the other side of the state for a weeknight tournament game.
• "I'm just a big proponent of getting back to a regional champion," Trask said.
• Informed that the current system was implemented at the behest of the coaches of nine-man teams, Trask didn't seem convinced that the coaches should be making those kinds of decisions. He told the board to ask students and parents what they thought of the current system.
"They might have a different take on it than what the coaches are telling you," Trask said.
• Krogstrand will report to the board at its June 11 meeting in Pierre with male enrollment numbers and how the teams might be designated in a seven-classification system.