Moorhead Spuds football to move to largest Minnesota classification this fall

MOORHEAD — The Moorhead Spuds will move up to Minnesota’s largest-school division of football next fall.

The Spuds will compete in Class 6A as part of the Minnesota State High School League’s latest classification. The MSHSL lists Moorhead High School’s enrollment at 1,779 students.

The largest 32 schools will compete in Class 6A for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

“With our growing enrollment, bigger classes coming in, we knew this was an inevitable part of the equation,” said Moorhead activities director Dean Haugo.

Moorhead will jump up from Class 5A, where it was ranked No. 1 in the final poll on Oct. 20. The Spuds narrowly missed the state playoffs last season with a 48-44 loss to Alexandria in the Section 8-5A Championship.

Haugo noted that Moorhead was the largest school in Class 5A, and missed the benchmark for 6A status two years ago by three students.

Some of the biggest hurdles the school will face surrounds the sub-varsity levels, including junior varsity and ninth-grade football. Moorhead Area Public Schools leaders announced potential

budget cuts of more than $4.2 million

for the 2025-26 academic year in February.

Haugo said keeping the sub-varsity football games closer to Moorhead, when possible, can help alleviate some added costs.

“Rather than playing a ninth-grade game at a Twin Cities opponent, maybe their team can find a metro team to play, and we can stay with our ninth-grade team here,” Haugo said. “We will do our best to find savings where we can.”

The Spuds have competed in Class 5A since the sixth class was introduced ahead of the 2012 season. The team has played in four state tournament playoffs since 2012 and 17 overall, including a state championship in 1987 and runner-up finishes in 1972 and 1981.

Moorhead has the 23rd-largest school by enrollment with Wayzata as the largest with 3,533 students. The Spuds will compete in the largest classification for all other sports and activities.

The league’s Football Placement Committee will meet in April to start putting together scheduling districts and sections. The process will be finalized on June 3 by the MSHSL’s Board of Directors.

The increased level of play will match the Spuds up with teams they rarely face on the gridiron.

“We play a lot of the 6A schools in other activities,” Haugo said. “We feel really comfortable about being able to work well with those folks.”

Anna Paige / The Forum

After graduating from North Dakota State University, Haugland joined the Forum in January of 2023. Readers can reach him at 701-241-5508 or by emailing ahaugland@forumcomm.com