The Siuslaw Vikings football team likely will see most of the usual suspects next fall when it begins defense of its Oregon School Activities Association Class 3A title.

The OSAA's Football Ad Hoc Committee has held the first of four scheduled meetings to form special districts in the wake of the adoption of classifications and districts for the coming four school years.

It's first update suggests Siuslaw will be in a league similar to the one it has been part of the past four seasons.

The committee will use cutoff points for the adopted classifications, with 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A all competing in the 11-player game.

Schools in the adopted 2A and 1A classifications will be separated into three divisions, the first two featuring the 9-player game.

Mapleton, should it resume tackle football, will be in the third group that features the 6-player game.

Siuslaw will play at the 3A level for all sports starting next school year. And that may be a good thing for the football program.

The committee is considering denying postseason eligibiltiy for schools opting to move down a classification.

Siuslaw was technically a 4A school playing down to 3A football the past four seasons. The Vikings have been the smallest of the 4A schools in recent years, and will be 3A for the next four-year block.

Siuslaw's adjusted three-year average ADM (average daily membership) is 234, which sits comfortably in the middle of the OSAA's new guideline of 310 to 146 for 3A.

Eight of the Vikings' 12 wins last fall were against schools with higher ADMs — Gladstone 440, Junction City 378, La Pine (twice) 266, Sisters 303, Pleasant Hill 236, North Valley 290 and South Umpqua (244).

Cascade Christian (153), who the Vikings beat twice, and Santiam Christian (167) were in last spring's 3A title game. Blanchet Catholic (140) clearly was outclassed by the Vikings in the first round of the 3A playoffs.

As it stands, Vikings football likely will play in a league much like the new 3A Mountain Valley Conference, which Siuslaw joins next fall.

Those schools include Creswell, Elmira, Harrisburg, La Pine, Pleasant Hill and Sisters. Siuslaw, La Pine, Pleasant Hill and Sisters were in the same special district for football last fall.

Harrisburg, which played as an independent last fall, is one of 13 schools who officially asked to be moved down a classification in football going forward.

If granted, the Eagles likely would compete in the 2A upper division for 9-player football.

That also would make scheduling easier for the Vikings, who likely would be in a six-team league instead of seven. Leagues with an odd number of schools often have hard-to-fill byes in their schedules.

The committee's next meeting is Jan. 5, when tentative district alignments are expected to be released.

Meetings also are scheduled for Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, before final recommendations are forwarded to the executive board.

The full update of the committee's first meeting is available at https://www.osaa.org/docs/committees/football/20211220update.pdf.