Two to Division II

• South Dakota Mines and DSU

Press Photo by Dustin Monke South Dakota Mines defensive end Brian Kemnitz, left, pursues Dickinson State quarterback Cody Holland during a game at the Badlands Activities Center on Oct. 17. The two teams, who have been members of the Dakota Athletic Conference since 2000, will soon be in different divisions. Mines and Black Hills State were accepted into NCAA Division II on Monday.

Talk about it

The landscape of small college athletics in North and South Dakota is about to change dramatically.

Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines announced during separate press conferences Monday that they have been accepted as NCAA Division II institutions.

The South Dakota schools, separated by 50 miles along the northern edge of the Black Hills, applied for Division II status June 1.

“We’ve known for some time what their plans were and we fully expected them to be accepted into Division II,” Dakota Athletic Conference Commissioner LaVern Jessen said.

BHSU and Mines will remain members of the NAIA and the DAC for the 2010-11 academic year as they begin a three-year transition period to the NCAA. In the 2011-12 season, they will begin a two-year probationary period before gaining official Division II status.

Jessen said NAIA rules prevent institutions transitioning to the NCAA from competing for conference titles during the second and third years of their transition period.

Jessen added that the DAC’s remaining five member schools — Dickinson State, Jamestown College, Mayville State, Valley City State and Dakota State — plan to hold a meeting in early August to try and answer several questions about the future of the conference, including possible expansion and feelings on continuing to schedule BHSU and Mines beginning in the 2011-12 season.

“A lot of those issues will be discussed at that meeting,” Jessen said.

BHSU athletic director Jhett Albers would like to see his teams remain on DAC schedules during the school’s transition period.

“We’ve got to get together with those other DAC members and see what’s best for the student-athletes for all of our institutions,” Albers said, “and hopefully we can work it out where we remain playing them, they remain playing us and it gives us an extra year to look at a schedule and for them to look at teams to join their conference.”

BHSU and Mines are the third and fourth schools to leave the conference since 2005.

The University of Mary was the first to leave the DAC for Division II and joined the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in 2006.

Minot State became the second member of the conference to be accepted into Division II last July. The NCAA notified Minot State on Monday that it has entered Candidacy Year Two in its membership process. The Beavers are playing their final season in the NAIA this year and are trying to gain membership in the NSIC.

With Minot State, Mines and BHSU leaving the NAIA, the DAC will have only five member schools remaining by the fall of 2011. The conference needs six schools to be eligible for automatic postseason bids.

“I think everyone in the five schools is disappointed,” Jessen said. “We had a good conference and we see it deteriorate down to five members. It doesn’t mean we won’t continue to be a good conference, we’ll just have five members.”

The move to the NCAA creates conference conundrums for BHSU and Mines as well.

According to a press release from Mines’ sports information department, the school said both have “received interest” from the NSIC and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

“We have the things that they’re looking for,” Albers said. “I would think that we would be good candidates.”

Despite several hurdles in its way to becoming a full-fledged member of the NCAA, Mines officials say the move is good for the future of its athletic department.

“As an administration, we feel strongly that the philosophical similarities between South Dakota School of Mines and NCAA Division II are an excellent match as it relates to athletics, academics and being a part of the student body,” Mines athletics director Dick Kaiser said.

Tags: south dakota mines, black hills state, sports, college, dac