McFeely: NSIC could vote on Jamestown's admission to league Tuesday

FARGO — Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference presidents and chancellors will meet Tuesday to discuss whether to accept the University of Jamestown into the league, sources at multiple schools say.

Jamestown wants to move its athletics program from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to the higher NCAA Division II level and needs an invitation from a conference to do so. The school, located in Jamestown, N.D., applied for membership to the NSIC in May.

NSIC commissioner Erin Lind and Jamestown athletic director Austin Hieb did not respond to requests for comment.

One rumor making its way around the league might enter the discussion about Jamestown. Wayne State of Nebraska, a longtime NSIC member, is said to be interested in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, a 14-member conference with schools in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

If Wayne State was to leave the NSIC, it would drop the league's membership to 14 teams. That's an even number that makes it easier to schedule in sports that require travel partners like men's and women's basketball. Adding Jamestown would then bring the NSIC up an odd-numbered 15 members.

But that's a recent rumor and the NSIC has spent significant time and resources looking into Jamestown.

Representatives of the NSIC took a site visit to Jamestown last month, spending two days on-campus and in the community doing due diligence. The league contingent met with the university president's cabinet, coaches and student-athletes. It also took tours of facilities.

After the site visit, Lind told The Forum everything was on track for the presidents and chancellors to "take action" on Jamestown's application before December 1. Sources said at the time there would likely be a vote around Thanksgiving on whether to invite the Jimmies to the conference.

Jamestown needs a 2/3 vote, 10 of 15 institutions, to get into the NSIC. It would begin play in the fall of 2025.

Jamestown, having been kicked out of its current home in the Great Plains Athletic Conference after this academic year, will join the North Star Conference for 2024-25.

Multiple sources said the league could take several courses of action during its meeting, anything from discussing Jamestown's application but not taking action to voting to accept or decline the school.

The most likely would be that, after discussion, the question will be called and the presidents and chancellors will have a formal vote.

While nobody connected to the NSIC will tip their hand on Jamestown's chances of being invited to join the league, Hieb and other sources have said the October visit went well. Jamestown officials believe their school is a good fit because of geography, league make-up and facilities among other things.

The NSIC already has two members in North Dakota — Minot State and the University of Mary — plus other schools like Minnesota State University Moorhead, Northern State (S.D). and Minnesota-Crookston within easy driving distance. Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall, Minnesota and the league's two schools in Sioux Falls, S.D. are also within 300 miles.

Jamestown, a Christian university, would be the NSIC's fifth private institution, joining Mary, the University of Sioux Falls, Augustana University in Sioux Falls and Concordia-St. Paul.

The conference lost a member when Upper Iowa left after the 2022-23 school year to join the Great Lakes Valley Conference. That dropped NSIC membership to 15, which affected sports like men's basketball and women's basketball that play two conference games per weekend and have travel partners to make scheduling easier.

If the current NSIC members hold and Jamestown is added, having 16 teams split into two eight-team divisions is how the league operated prior to Upper Iowa's departure.

College athletics is in an era of super-sized conferences, which offers a safety cushion in the event of losing schools with further realignment.

After the NSIC site visit to Jamestown, Lind wouldn't offer an opinion on whether the school would be admitted or not. She did, though, hint that there is strength in numbers for college conferences.

"In my position, I have the opportunity to talk with leaders of all the other Division II conferences in the country. And in our talks, I hear often about their struggles," Lind said. "And when I hear about the struggles of smaller conferences, it's about scheduling and resources and all the issues that might arise because you're a smaller conference. I don't think that's a place our league wants to go."