PIERRE — For South Dakota high schools, one of the most anticipated times of the year is the March release of the fall football schedules. Football coaches like to know who their opponents will be. School administrators like to know when to schedule homecoming.
At its meeting on Wednesday, June 12, the board of directors of the South Dakota High School Activities Association approved the first reading of two policy changes that may hurry along the process of releasing the schedules.
One policy change says that in alignment years, all members schools must have specific information to SDHSAA by the February board meeting. That information includes whether a school is adding or removing football from its offerings. Schools must also tell the board if, for the upcoming classification cycle, they are joining a new football cooperative or dissolving an old football cooperative.

Another policy calls for football schedules to be released for each class as they are completed. Delays by schools in reporting their participation or changes in cooperatives may delay the release of the schedule for affected classes.
Releasing schedules as they are completed means that bigger schools will likely get their schedules first since there are fewer teams in the higher divisions. SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Randy Soma, who makes the football schedules for all member schools, said small schools may have some “heartache” if bigger schools get their schedules first. Despite the potential for heartache, Soma added that most of what he has heard from schools is “let’s have them released when you have them done.”