Despite scheduling challenges, South Dakota strikes new balance with 2024 football slate

PIERRE — In recent years, South Dakota’s high school football schedules have experienced an increase in Thursday and Saturday contests, as well as earlier start times on Fridays to accommodate teams and officials alike.

Though the total number of non-Friday games is nearly identical to a season ago, a series of schedule tweaks have allowed more schools to be content with their assigned slates, according to Randy Soma, an assistant executive director for the South Dakota High School Activities Association.

“We’re still playing a lot of Thursday and Saturday games,” Soma said, “but most of the schools have requested it, so that’s helped.”

One of the most significant changes since last year is courtesy of the All-Nations Conference, which operates for tribal schools parallel to the traditional seven classes of South Dakota high school football.

The All-Nations Conference has found a stable schedule by playing most of its games on Thursday nights. In fact, the majority of Thursday contests scheduled for this fall are All-Nations Conference contests, with at least a half-dozen games each Thursday throughout the regular season.

Overall, a slight increase in the number of Thursday games has allowed for a slight decrease in the number of Saturday contests. Approximately five out of every six high school football games in South Dakota remain on Friday nights.

“It’s always challenging to create all those football schedules,” Soma said. “It’s never perfect, but we get it accomplished.”

Due to the remote location of some school districts and the travel time required to get there, it can sometimes be tricky to find officials for Friday night games, but that burden is eased if the school is open to a Thursday or Saturday game date.

One noticeable change to Friday nights has been an uptick in the number of games that kick off prior to 7 p.m. A handful of games each week, especially those that require significant travel for the visiting team, begin at 6 p.m., and a select few evening games start as early as 5 p.m. That’s in addition to a handful of mid-afternoon kickoffs each season.

Soma said it’s becoming more uncommon, but some crews will work two games in one day, officiating a mid-afternoon game before moving on to a regular 7 p.m. kickoff game in the same area.

“We like schools to go 7 p.m. if possible, but as long as the officials can make it and the other school is fine with that start time, we’re OK with it, too,” Soma said. “We want to accommodate schools and allow them to do some of that because they might have other things planned behind it.”

Soma said that, overall, the feedback he’s heard surrounding this year’s football schedule has been positive. However, he did note that as co-ops sometimes form or dissolve well into the spring, it creates significant delays with getting all the schedules out.

Moving forward, the SDHSAA adopted a process that will allow for schedules to be released when they are finished on a class-by-class basis, as opposed to having to wait to release all seven classes at once. Particularly for Class 11AAA schools, Soma said there’s the possibility of adding games against programs from neighboring states, perhaps as soon as the next reclassification cycle that would take effect in 2026.

“We’re here to support the schools, so if there are changes that need to be made, we’re fine with that,” Soma said. “Right now, we are just scheduling within the class as much as possible and doing the best we can to get everybody a viable schedule.

“We take a lot of stuff into consideration, and schools have been really good about accepting what they get. Sometimes, they might be frustrated, but overall, I think they feel like they’ve been heard,” Soma continued. “We’re always trying to improve, and I think we’re getting better at it.”

Dierks covers prep and collegiate athletics across the Mitchell Republic’s coverage region area. His focus areas include: Mitchell High School football and boys basketball; area high school football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and track and field; and South Dakota State football. He is also at the forefront of the Mitchell Republic’s podcasting efforts. Dierks is a Mitchell native who graduated from South Dakota State University with his bachelor’s degree in journalism in May 2020. He joined the Mitchell Republic sports staff in August 2021. He can be reached at ldierks@mitchellrepublic.com and found on Twitter at @LDierksy.