Practice for the 2012 fall games has begun.

The high school sports fall season started in earnest Monday, the first day allowed by the Minnesota State High School League for organized team practices.

The fall sports landscape features two big changes.

Football has added a seventh class, Class 6A. It comprises the 32 largest schools in terms of enrollment, including Eden Prairie and Wayzata, finalists in the 2011 Class 5A championship game.

Boys’ soccer will be missing some top-end talent. Forty-five top boys’ players in the state will be training in the Minnesota Thunder Academy’s rigorous and fulltime developmental program, under the direction of the United States Soccer Federation, and will not be able to compete at the high school level.

JIM PAULSEN