Mac's Tip Sheet: Should ND, SD small colleges return to the days of the DAC?

Mac's Tip Sheet is a compilation of notes, quotes, rumors, gossip and commentary by Forum columnist Mike McFeely. If you have a tip, a note or a hot rumor feel free to send it along to mmcfeely@forumcomm.com. Not all will be printed because of, you know, legal reasons. But they might lead to something. All tip sources will remain anonymous.

The Dakota Athletic Conference was perfect, a marriage of the old North Dakota College Athletic Conference and the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference. A 10-school small-college league made up of members from North Dakota and South Dakota that included affordable travel, relatively short bus trips, long-time rivalries and similar institutions.

The NAIA league died in 2012, the victim of college athletics realignment before it became the monster it is today.

Some schools moved to NCAA Division II, while others stayed in NAIA.

Minot State and Mary joined the D2 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines went to the D2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Those that stayed NAIA largely landed eventually in the North Star Athletic Association. Dickinson State, Jamestown, Valley City State, Mayville State and Dakota State were among the members.

Now things are changing again.

Jamestown eventually bolted for a different NAIA conference and will now transition to Division II. Dickinson State has said it will leave soon for the NAIA Frontier Conference based in Montana. Viterbo (Wis.) and Waldorf (Iowa) have found new conferences for 2024-2025.

So the North Star Athletic Association is dissolving after the 2024-25 school year. That leaves behind Valley City State, Dakota State, Mayville State and Bellevue (Neb.) University. All are looking for new homes. And there aren't many good options.

Losing athletic departments at schools like Valley City State and Mayville State could be fatal to the institutions themselves because of loss of enrollment, which is why they have to find a home and stay viable.

Valley City State athletic director and football coach Dennis McCulloch wants his fellow Dakotas school administrators to think outside the box for solutions.

Could we have a re-imagined Dakota Athletic Conference — perhaps as a wing of the NSIC or RMAC — that would benefit all the small colleges in North Dakota and South Dakota?

"I'm just trying to start the conversation," McCulloch said this week. "Is there feasibility in that happening? Could there be a discussion about all the schools in the Dakotas playing in the same conference again? I'm nostalgic enough to believe that the DAC was a good thing for everybody and that we could have that again.

"If there's no interest, if people say there's no way that's going to happen again, then I can say when it comes up, 'No, we've explored that and it's not going to happen. We have to look at other options.' But until we have that conversation, I'm going to believe something can happen."

Valley City State is currently exploring all its options, as reported recently by Eric Peterson in The Forum. That includes having a consultant study the feasibility of the Vikings moving to Division II. McCulloch said a Division III league showed interest. Remaining NAIA is a possibility.

Mayville State is having the same discussions. Division III and a spot in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference might be the best fit for the Comets.

McCulloch knows Valley City State is in a tough spot, especially with nearby rival, the University of Jamestown, moving to the NSIC. But he remembers the days of easy bus trips, regional recruiting and intense rivalries and wonders if there can't be a way to return to that.

"It's really to say: Could you re-imagine the NSIC being split east-west? Same thing with the RMAC. Is there a regional solution that emphasizes reduced travel budgets, cost-containment, playing like institutions with which you have something in common?" McCulloch said. "I don't know of many things that are going to replace the Jamestown-Valley City State football game. We get 3,000 fans at our place for that game. Minnesota Duluth is going to come to Jamestown, but are the fans going to be as interested? There weren't many other things like the Mary-Dickinson rivalry in football. I don't think anything has replaced that. I think we can have some of those things back again if we think outside the box."

Opinion: It's one thing for the power Division I conferences to blow up regional rivalries for TV money and even North Dakota State moving to FBS would be for television money or national exposure reasons, but why wouldn't small colleges from North Dakota and South Dakota be under the same umbrella playing each other? It makes no sense.

Yes, McCulloch is looking through the lens of an AD and football coach who is on an island. We get that. But isn't what he's saying sensible? We're not talking Division I here. We're not talking big money or national exposure here. We're talking small schools in a remote part of the country that are looking to contain costs. Shouldn't they all be playing one another, in the same league?

Longtime Murray State coach Dean Hood lasted one year in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. He announced his retirement after the Racers went 1-7 in their first year in the league, 2-9 overall.

Murray State moved quickly to replace Hood, hiring Jody Wright last week. Wright has an impressive resume, working most recently as tight ends coach at Southeastern Conference member South Carolina. He has years of NFL experience, worked under Nick Saban at Alabama and also was an assistant at Mississippi State and Georgia. He's also been at Alabama-Birmingham and Jacksonville State.

The Racers moved from the Ohio Valley Conference to the MVFC last year. They lost 38-6 at North Dakota State at the Fargodome.

It is a long way to the top of the league.

"I know it was a tough schedule last year, but I was very impressed with the guys competing in those games and playing those games close and I know how easy it is, when it’s not going your way and the ball’s not bouncing your way, for them, to quit," Wright said at his introductory press conference. "I didn’t see that. That’s why I’m excited to work with them."

Murray State lost 19 players to the transfer portal, most of any team in the conference.

Something that likely won't happen, but if it does I'll look like a genius:

— Colorado is going romp North Dakota State in football in the season opener this fall. The Bison have famously won a number of games against Power Five opponents and have been competitive in most FBS games. Not this time. Coach Deion Sanders' Buffaloes have through the transfer portal landed five FBS starters for his offensive line, the team's biggest weakness in 2023. He's added three FBS transfers for the defensive line. The coach's son, Shadeur Sanders, posted on social media recently, "Y’all know I’m not declaring (for the NFL Draft) this year. We got the pieces we need do it big this year."

We received an email from a longtime Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, reader the other day wondering why NDSU doesn't play Minnesota State University Moorhead in men's basketball. It is question that's been bandied about for years (the teams used to play) and was rekindled this year with the Dragons hitting the No. 1 ranking in NCAA Division II and the Bison playing something called Oak Hills Christian from Bemidji, Minnesota, and winning 108-14.

In part, the email read: "Last week several of us were sitting at the coffee table, tossing around things when one of the fellas said, wouldn’t it be timely for the Bison to schedule an exhibition game with the Minnesota State Moorhead basketball team. Since the Dragons have been playing decent basketball for the last few years, it would be exciting for the Fargo-Moorhead market to see how the Dragons would fare against a Division I team. As a Dragon alum, I may even drive over for a game like that."

I have taken my cracks at NDSU for not playing MSUM, including after I sat through the Oak Hills Christian game at the Scheels Center and heard fans around me griping. I think the teams should play and have told Bison coach Dave Richman this to his face.

However, in fairness to Richman and NDSU, it should be noted: Nobody in the Summit League will play Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference teams.

South Dakota State played the University of Mary in an exhibition game to open the season, a 91-51 victory. Other than that, the Dakotas schools and St. Thomas — all smack dab in the middle of the NSIC footprint and in need of non-conference games — scheduled exactly zero NSIC opponents.

They scheduled plenty of regional games against non-Division I opponents, but none against the NSIC.

North Dakota played Division III Concordia of Moorhead and NAIA Valley City State. The Jackrabbits played NAIA Dakota Wesleyan, NAIA Mount Marty of Yankton, S.D. and NAIA Mayville State. The Bison played Division III St. Olaf in an exhibition, Mount Marty, Division III Wisconsin-Stout and Oak Hills Christian. St. Thomas played Division III Crown College of Minnesota, Division II Wisconsin-River Falls and Division III North Central College of Minnesota. South Dakota played Mount Marty.

Average score of the Summit's regional non-Division I games: 94-57.

Nothing will change, despite NDSU, the South Dakota schools, St. Thomas and UND being located close to numerous NSIC schools. St. Thomas playing Minnesota State Mankato or South Dakota playing Augustana would seem as obvious as NDSU playing MSUM, right?

With the Summit League getting one bid to the NCAA tournament, there's no incentive for teams to play NSIC schools. Winning the conference tournament matters, strength of schedule doesn't. They all have to play "guarantee games" against high-level opponents to get paychecks and so it's preferable to play Mount Marty or Wisconsin-River Falls for home non-conference games instead of Minnesota State Mankato or MSUM.

Why take a chance on losing a game to a D2 schools when you can guarantee yourself a victory over an NAIA team? Coaches get new contracts by winning games, not by playing regional Division II schools to whom they could lose.

It would be better for fans, the NSIC schools and basketball in general if that wasn't the case, but reality bites.

MSUM dropped to No. 5 in the Division II men's basketball poll this week. The Dragons were No. 1 before losing to Sioux Falls last Saturday. Fellow NSIC member Minnesota State Mankato vaulted to the top spot. West Texas A&M is No. 2, followed by Saint Martin's of Washington, Dallas Baptist and MSUM. ... Edgewood Golf Club pro Greg McCullough, long an outstanding bowler who remains scratch, rolled a 300 game Monday night in league play at Sunset Lanes in Moorhead. It was his ninth perfect game. ... Max Abmas, former Oral Roberts basketball star and two-time Summit League Player of the Year, scored a season-high 32 points last weekend in Texas' loss to West Virginia. Abmas, who transferred to the Longhorns for his sixth and final college season, made 7 of 13 3-pointers. He's averaging 18 points a game for the 12-4 Longhorns, who are receiving votes in the Associated Press top 25 poll. ... Last season's Summit League men's basketball Freshman of the Year, Andrew Rohde, is averaging 5.8 points and 3 assists in 16 games for Virginia this season after transferring from St. Thomas. Rohde has started 15 games for coach Tony Bennett's club. He averaged 17 points for St. Thomas last season.