SPS parents and patrons, on or before November 30, our Sports Cooperative with McPherson County will need to make a request for any alternative classification for football we may want for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. One question that looms, is whether we play 8 man football and opt to D-3 (a new classification for the smallest 8-man schools) if we do not qualify for D-3, or opt to play 6-man football for that cycle.
At this time it seems likely that we will qualify to be in the newly formed D-3. In the next cycle D-1 will be the 32 largest teams, and D-2 & D-3 will split the rest of the 8man schools in half (the smallest half to D-3). Using this year’s numbers D-1 enrollments would be 73 to 45 boys in grades 9-11, D-2 would be 45 to 35, and D-3 would be 34 to 16. We currently have 13 boys in grades 9-11 and Tryon has 11. So our current enrollment of 24 would put us in the D-3 range if current numbers were used. Our next cycle count currently stands at 19, which makes our classification in D-3 even more certain perhaps.
Up to this point the popular sentiment seems to be that we should play in D-3 (8-man smallest division), whether we qualify or we choose to opt down. The thought is that we should continue to prepare and develop players in the 8-man game, because our enrollment of boys will increase for the next cycle of 2028 and 2029. If you have an opinion about this decision that you'd like to share, you are invited to speak with the school's administration or a school board member before the regular meeting on October 13th.