South Dakota State University

[89rabbit]

Today my school, South Dakota State University, accepted an invitation to join the Mid-Continent Conference as associate members in the sports of men?s and women?s swimming & diving. Over on the "other sports" forum the subject of our Men's Basketball team came up. Here is a copy of what I posted over there.

Greetings Eagle fans,

Stopped and I thought I would touch base about our Basketball programs, since the topic was brought up. Here is a quick facts, SDSU is the largest and only D-I University in South Dakota (enrollment of 11,021) located in Brookings, SD. Our Colors are blue and yellow and we are the Jackrabbits. SDSU's Men's Basketball team has won 1 NCAA D-II Championship, 1 NCAA D-II Runner-Up, and made 24 NCAA D-II tourney appearences (3rd most all time), won 20 NCC Championships (Most all time). We lead the Nation in D-II attendence 6 out of the last 10 years we were in the division. Our last season in D-II, '03-'04, we spent the whole season ranked in the top 20 with several weeks being ranked #1.

ESPN recently ran a story on us here are some highlights:

Leap Of Faith

There are three newbies in Division I this season, but only New Jersey Institute of Technology is going it the hard way as an independent. Here's a tip for the Highlanders: look at what South Dakota State's doing as it ascends successfully from D-II.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/st ... id=2160271

Need an opponent? NJIT is willing, if not yet readyBy Andy Glockner

ESPN.com

The school's name sounds like it's straight out of "Blue Chips." The first call to the athletic department ended up in the voice mail of the ex-sports information director; the receptionist said the new SID was in "another, temporary location." Because of renovations, the coach currently doesn't have a phone or computer in his office.

Welcome to Division I, New Jersey Institute of Technology! . . .

NJIT might be well-served in looking at the path another D-I independent has taken.

South Dakota State University came to Division I last season after a terrific run in D-II and went 10-18 -- a reputable finish that included road losses at Manhattan, Illinois-Chicago, Marquette, Denver, San Diego State and UMKC that all were within 16 points. South Dakota State also already has a couple of pieces in place that NJIT will need to secure -- a nice arena (8,500-seat capacity) and a supportive fan base. The SDSU Jackrabbits led Division II in average attendance in 2003-04 (at 3,375 per game).

SDSU is combating its current lack of a conference schedule by trying to land big-time nonconference games. This season, the Jackrabbits open at Rupp Arena against Kentucky in the Guardians Classic before heading to Champaign to help open Illinois' post-title game season. They also lured three top-100 teams from last season up to Brookings, S.D., this year.

"[The Guardians Classic] will be our first time on national TV," head coach Scott Nagy said. "[Games like that and Illinois] help our exposure. This year, we had two scholarships [to give out for next season] and we're done already. Even though we don't have a league, we are able to recruit based on who we were playing. ... Once we get to where we are a full-blown member of D-I, I don't think I would schedule the way we're scheduling right now. We're not able to go to the NCAAs [right now] ... so that's why were doing that."

Still, Nagy realizes that his program's long-term success will be highly dependent on getting into a conference.

"That's a big battle for us, to get into a league," he said. "You need to get into a league to get the auto bid [to the NCAA Tournament]. In terms of recruiting, that's a big deal. It's not a question of kids asking if we can compete for [league] championships ... now the kids want to know if you'll be able to get into a league [so they can play in the NCAAs]."

Still, after a season in which he was forced to play two walk-ons at the starting guard positions due to an illness, a transfer and a couple of redshirts, Nagy is excited about his team's prospects for Year 2 of the transitional period. And despite the news headline on the school's athletics site trumpeting what turns out to be a "four for zero" (all four games on the road) series with regional power Minnesota, the Jackrabbits have 11 Division I home games scheduled for this season. Even that has Nagy a bit worried, though.

The visiting teams "haven't been here yet," he chuckled. "Once we get them here, we might have trouble getting them back" because of the fan support, the quality of his team and the frigid winter weather. . . .

We play our games on Campus at Frost Arena (Cap. 8,500) and just spent $3 million on new score boards.

New Scoreboard

2005-06 SDSU Men's Basketball Schedule

Nov. 13-14 Guardians Classic Lexington, Ky.

Nov. 13 Kentucky Rupp Arena 8 p.m. ET

Nov. 14 Lipscomb (Tenn.) or Northern Colorado Rupp Arena TBD

Nov. 18 Illinois Champaign, Ill. 7 p.m.

Nov. 21-22 Guardians Classic (if qualified) Kansas City, Mo. TBA

Nov. 24 Southeast Missouri State Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Nov. 28 Cal State Fullerton Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Dec. 3 Marquette (Wis.) Milwaukee, Wis. 1 p.m.

Dec. 6 Wisconsin-Milwaukee Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Dec. 8 Nebraska Lincoln, Neb. 7:05 p.m.

Dec. 10 Denver (Colo.) Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Dec. 12 UMKC Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Dec. 20 Manhattan (N.Y.) Sioux Falls, S.D. 7 p.m.

Dec. 23 Minnesota Minneapolis, Minn. 7 p.m.

Dec. 28 Butler (Ind.) Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Jan. 2 Montana State Bozeman, Mont. 7:05 p.m. MT

Jan. 7 Utah Valley State Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Jan. 14 North Dakota State Fargo, N.D. 7 p.m.

Jan. 18 Central Florida Orlando, Fla. 7 p.m. ET

Jan. 25 Idaho State Pocatello, Idaho 7 p.m. MT

Jan. 27 Utah State Logan, Utah 7:05 p.m. MT

Jan. 30 Utah Valley State Orem, Utah 7:05 p.m. MT

Feb. 2 Southwest Minnesota State Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Feb. 6 IPFW Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Feb. 11 Texas-Pan American Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Feb. 13 Middle Tennessee State Murfreesboro, Tenn. 7 p.m.

Feb. 18 North Dakota State Frost Arena 7 p.m.

Feb. 22 IPFW Fort Wayne, Ind. 8 p.m. ET

Feb. 25 Texas-Pan American Edinburg, Texas 1:30 p.m.

Mar. 3 San Diego State (Calif.) San Diego, Calif. 7 p.m. PT

Mar. 5 Cal State Fullerton Fullerton, Calif. 2:05 p.m. PT

If you would like to know more about the Jackrabbits feel free to visit the links below.

Offical Athletics Site:

http://www.gojacks.com/

Fan site:

http://diaafootball.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

P.S. Our Women are good also. They won the NCAA D-II National Championship in '03 and went 21-7 last season with wins over Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma State, and Middle Tennessee St. just to name a few.

[89rabbit]

ESPNU has picked up the Jacks game against Illinois. That means that SDSU will be on National TV (ESPNU) three times in the month of November.

Nov. 13th - Kentucky

Nov. 14th - Lipscomb or Northern Colorado - TBD

Nov. 18th - Illinois

So if you want to see what we are all about, just tune in.