GRAND FORKS — Mayville State began 2024 looking for a new conference home.
On Dec. 28, North Star Athletic Association commissioner Roger Ternes announced the NSAA's decision to dissolve the conference at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Comets are one of four NSAA schools left to find a conference to join. The others are Valley City State, Dakota State and Bellevue University.
“We've reached out to every option,” said Rocky Larson, Mayville State’s interim athletic director and football coach, “and we're keeping all options open.”
Waldorf, Viterbo and Dickinson State all announced new conference destinations before the NSAA's announcement.
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There are a few routes Mayville State could take. One option is to follow Dickinson State to the Frontier Conference based in Montana.
That might be the most clear-cut solution.
“They want us to come with them,” Larson said.
But joining the Frontier, or any other conference, doesn’t come without its challenges. The biggest drawback to the Frontier Conference is the travel required to get to its schools.
All six of Frontier’s full members are located in Montana. Four affiliate members, who all field football teams, are in Idaho, Arizona and Oregon, adding additional travel.
Every option Mayville State has considered so far has its advantages and disadvantages.
“Some of them are budget increases to travel, or we'd have to completely change the way we recruit as an athletic department,” Larson said. “There's so many things that go into conference realignment. It's not as easy as USC saying, ‘Oh, we're going to go to the Big Ten.’ We don't have the budget to be able to do all that. We have to be very creative in how we get to where we need to go.”
Mayville State is approaching discussions with the hope of keeping Valley City State and Dickinson State on the schedule. Larson said he talks with the school’s respective athletic directors at least once a week as the schools decide their futures.
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Joining a conference in the NAIA would be the most seamless transition for Mayville State because the Comets already operate according to the NAIA’s rules.
But Mayville State hasn’t ruled out a jump to NCAA Division II or III. For example, Jamestown, who will compete as a full member of the NSAA in 2024-2025, will compete as a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference at the Division II level beginning in July 2025.
The 15 member schools that make up the NSIC are all located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Mayville State knows the decision it makes will impact coaches and student athletes. That awareness led to Mayville State’s choice to feel out options before jumping to a new conference.
“This is a huge decision. There's a lot of moving pieces when you look at the recruiting landscape, budgets, scholarship models. It's a massive decision for a campus our size,” Larson said. “I would say we'll make a decision when we know we have the right opportunity. The quicker this is done, the more sleep I'll get at night, because this is something that keeps you up all the time.
“We'd like to for sure have something in place by spring or summer, but if the right opportunity knocks today, we’ll pull the trigger.”
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