South Dakota’s postseason basketball format could see another major shakeup. 

At Wednesday’s South Dakota High School Activities Association basketball advisory committee meeting, the seven-person board passed one of six proposals. And it impacts Class A and B postseason basketball. 

The proposed rule change is that higher seeds host Class A and B SoDak 16 contests, with the eight winners going to the state tournaments. Class AA currently plays its SoDak 16 contests at higher seed sites. 

As it currently stands, the Class A and B SoDak 16 games are played at neutral sites after two teams from the state’s eight regions qualify for the round of 16. 

The rationale for the rule change is football, soccer and softball all host postseason contests. Volleyball currently utilizes the same postseason format as basketball, but the same proposal is going to be voted upon at the AD’s meeting. 

“It’s going to move forward in volleyball,” SDHSAA assistant executive director Jo Auch said. “I would like your blessing in basketball because basically what we do in volleyball and basketball go hand in hand.” 

The proposal states a host site must meet minimum requirement of a 700-seat capacity gym. If the gym requirement cannot be met, the host site will determine a site that is not further in travel distance than the host site for the contest. 

After some discussion, Dell Rapids Superintendent Donovan DeBoer motioned to move the proposal forward and Sioux Falls Washington girls basketball coach Jamie Parish seconded it.

The proposal would place a premium on seed points and try to improve schedules to guarantee a home game. 

“This doesn't affect us,” said Parish, a Class AA coach. “But that’s what you play for in the regular season. You try to win games. You try to get yourselves in that top spot so that you get to host that game. There should be a benefit to having a good regular season.” 

The proposal will go to the athletic director’s meeting on March 25-27 in Sioux Falls, with a majority vote needed to go into effect. 

One proposal that was discussed at length was the SoDak 32 for Class A and B. The proposal, which was submitted by Canton High School, had three different possibilities to get to SoDak 32. 

• The top 32 teams by seed points would qualify for the SoDak 32, with No. 1 playing No. 32, No. 2 playing No. 31, etc. The higher seed would host and the SoDak 16 round stays the same as it currently stands. 
• Each team plays one game in their region and then reseed 1-32, with higher seed host and the SoDak 16 round stays the same as it currently stands. 
• Instead of reseeding the traditional method where No. 1 plays No. 32, No. 2 plays No. 31, etc. The region seedings to make the bracket reflect the regular season success of each team. The top remaining seed in each region is guaranteed to play a team at the bottom of another region reseeded by power points. Simply, if there are no upsets in any region, the No. 1 seed with the highest seed points plays No. 4 seed with the lowest seed points. The next highest No. 1 seed plays the next lowest No. 4 seed. In the same way, the No. 2 seed with the highest seed points plays the No. 3 seed with the lower seed points. The higher seed hosts in this format. Then, the teams would be reseeded completely for the SoDak 16 (playing with neutral sites) and reseeded for the state tournament. 

Clark/Willow Lake boys basketball coach Jerome Nesheim is in favor of the current SoDak 16 model and asked “My question is do what we have now, is it broken? The SoDak 16 I think works really well, but I don’t know if going to 32 is going to make it better.”

Nesheim also questioned if a SoDak 32 format is approved, where does it end? 

“My question here too is we’ve gone to the SoDak 16 and we are looking at the SoDak 32,” Nesheim said. “Are we just going to eventually go to a SoDak 64?”

Auch also argued travel would be an issue. Currently, teams play within their regions before traveling longer distances for the SoDak 16. The SoDak 32 proposal would create more travel, along with teams criss-crossing across the state on multiple school nights. 

“The problem is going to be the travel,” Auch said. “I think we are going to hear a lot from schools about the number of nights you have to travel on school nights. With the round of 16 it’s one night of travel. With the round of 32 it’s going to be a few more.”

SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos echoed Auch’s sentiments and pointed to the quick turnaround for teams to prepare and plan travel accommodations.  

“You would have cross state matchups in that round of 32 on one day’s notice,” Swartos said. “You are playing on Tuesday and you find out who you are playing Wednesday and it could be Parker going out to Harding County and playing on a Thursday.” 

Swartos also pointed out that next season Class A will have 56 teams and Class B will have 85 teams. If the top 32 teams, based on seed points, advance to the SoDak 32 then a number of teams have nothing to play for toward the end of the season. Currently, each team makes the postseason. 

“It works because we have regions and we have scheduled contests and it’s going to be within your region no matter where you are at,” Swartos added about the current postseason format. 

DeBoer also pointed to the weather as another issue with adding another round of extended travel.  

“Weather always plays a factor and then you are trying to makeup a game and you have to travel 260 miles,” DeBoer said. “That’s hard enough to do in SoDak 16.” 

The proposal was not moved forward to the AD’s meeting in March. 

Another proposal that discussed at length was the postseason change for Class AA. It states that Class AA would be divided into three regions: Metro, East and West. 

The Metro region would include Brandon Valley, Harrisburg, O’Gorman, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Washington. 

The East region would consist of Aberdeen Central, Brookings, Huron, Mitchell, Tea Area, Watertown and Yankton. 

The West region would include Douglas, Pierre, Rapid City Central, Rapid City Stevens, Spearfish and Sturgis. 

The teams would be expected to play every team within their region at least once during the regular season. Postseason play would start with a regional tournament and each region champ would qualify for the state tournament. The top-10 seeds that have not qualified for the state tournament play five state-qualifying games following the region tournament. The top seeded teams according to the SDHSAA seeding formula would be the home teams. 

The rationale behind the proposal, which was submitted by Sturgis High School, states district and region games have been replaced by the SoDak 16 format. In the current model, three teams do not qualify to participate in the postseason. With the addition of Tea Area to Class AA in 2024-25, the number will go to four teams not qualifying for the postseason. 

The proposal states it’s unfair to leave out teams from the postseason and that other classes allow every team to make the playoffs. Play-in games were mentioned, but Auch said the SDHSAA tried that for a few years and participating schools weren’t interested in it. 

SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Randy Soma also pointed out that “In the AA, soccer and different sports, they are not qualifying everybody already. It’s not any different in those sports where some don’t make it and you don't qualify everybody.”

Parish feels the current SoDak 16 model has gone well and “The tournaments have been much better. I remember my first couple years coaching in the state tournament, that noon game was 60-25 and since we’ve gone this route, it’s been a lot more competitive.”

Parish also added: “I go back to the fact we were unhappy when we went to the (SoDak 16) and to me, this kind of takes it back to where we were. I feel like this is a backward step.”

Parish was in favor of giving every Class AA team a postseason game, either by a play-in game or top four seeds receiving a bye. 

“I think it would be a great idea to give everybody an opportunity to play in that first round game and open the door there,” Parish said. 

DeBoer agreed with Parish and feels strongly that the current SoDak 16 model works across all classes. 

“It’s more than a basketball issue,” DeBoer said. “This is all sports in South Dakota and what we’ve kind of done with the SoDak 16, regional component is not really at the forefront anymore. Otherwise we would have stuck with regions in every single class in all those sports. We decided to go to SoDak 16 to try to get the best teams there. It does feel like a backward step for what we’ve been trying to do recently in South Dakota.”