A nice accomplishment. ...

[SelectionSunday]

for one of our Midwest brethren. The University of South Dakota was selected for the College Insider Tournament (CIT) and will play at Creighton tomorrow night. The Coyotes finished 22-9 and won the Great West regular season and tournament championships. I wouldn't be surprised if USD is on the Gophers' nonconference schedule next season.

Another former NCC program, Northern Colorado (24-7), also will play in the CIT. Throw in another relative D-I newbie's success last year (NDSU) and that's not a bad statement for the now defunct NCC.

 

[howeda7]

for one of our Midwest brethren. The University of South Dakota was selected for the College Insider Tournament (CIT) and will play at Creighton tomorrow night. The Coyotes finished 22-9 and won the Great West regular season and tournament championships. I wouldn't be surprised if USD is on the Gophers' nonconference schedule next season.

Another former NCC program, Northern Colorado (24-7), also will play in the CIT. Throw in another relative D-I newbie's success last year (NDSU) and that's not a bad statement for the now defunct NCC.

What's the story with the Great West? Most standings I saw this season listed USD and UND as independants. The first I saw of it was the 'Great West' tournament last week. Will they get an automatic bid in a few years? Is the conference only temporary until they find new homes?

 

[SelectionSunday]

I think the Great West will end up being a temporary conference. I think South Dakota and North Dakota have already been rumored to be going to the Big Sky or Summit League.

I know Centenary is dropping from Division I, so it would make sense for the Summit to add a team. Adding USD or UND would allow them to remain a 10-team league (a good number for scheduling), and it certainly would make sense to add either one to go along with NDSU and SDSU.

 

[MRJ]

Question for SS:

How long has South Dakota been full-fledged D1? I was under the impression that they made the move up within the last few years, but I'm not sure. Do you know?

 

[Governor Sibley]

The end of the old NCC sucks. That was a tough, competitive conference back in the day. UND versus NDSU was a big deal for some people. And then came cable television, big media, the internet, and made them seem so rinky dink.. RIP NCC!!

 

[howeda7]

The end of the old NCC sucks. That was a tough, competitive conference back in the day. UND versus NDSU was a big deal for some people. And then came cable television, big media, the internet, and made them seem so rinky dink.. RIP NCC!!

The half that didn't go D-I lives on in the now over-bloated Northern Sun Conference. When they thought they were only losing SDSU and NDSU they asked Northern State to join the NCC. They refused to due travel/recruiting costs, but it ended up happening one way or the other.

I think the NCC would have been better off going D-1 as a whole conference with NDSU, SDSU, UND, USD, Northern Colorado and trying to pick off three existing D-1 Teams to join them. Or lean on UMD and SCSU to go D-1 as well.

 

[Rex]

South Dakota has already been accepted into the Summit League(NDSU,SDSU,Oakland, etc.), starting July 1,2011.

http://www.thesummitleague.org/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=3900&ATCLID=3720305&SPID=1763&SPSID=21713

I've heard that North Dakota also would get an invite...but they have to resolve their "nickname" problem.

As far as the Great West is concerned...IMO, it's basically a "homeless shelter" for teams that don't have a conference. NDSU, NColorado, and SDSU were charter football members.

http://www.greatwestconference.org/about-gwfc/gwfc-about-gwfc.html

An automatic bid for a new conference is tough to obtain(I'm not sure of the timeline off the top of my head), but it's much easier to join an existing conference to become eligible for D-1 post-season play.