JAMESTOWN — While the University of Jamestown pursues a move up to NCAA Division II, the Jimmies will be without a conference home. Presidents of the Great Plains Athletic Conference voted Tuesday to remove Jamestown from the league at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. Jamestown applied to the Division II NSIC in August , but athletic director Austin Hieb says the earliest they could join that conference would be 2025.
"Whether our NCAA Division II transition happens or not, next year was going to be a year in the NAIA for us," Hieb said. "We're looking at some different options throughout the NAIA: conferences, independent. We're looking at all the options."
The vote happened at the conference's fall meeting Tuesday, but the GPAC announced the move in a statement Wednesday.
"The University of Jamestown has been a good member of the GPAC since they joined the league in 2018," Chair of the GPAC Council of Presidents Greg Christy said in the statement. "We wish them all the best as they continue to pursue an opportunity to join the NSIC and a move to NCAA Division II."
"We've been a good member of the GPAC and we kept them informed of our entire process," Heib said. "This is something that frankly just doesn't happen in college athletics. You can research the amount of times schools have been removed from conferences and the list is pretty short. More than anything, we're just disappointed."
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Recent examples of this type of move are few and far between. The University of St. Thomas was involuntarily removed from the MIAC in 2019. The Sun Belt Conference dropped football-only members New Mexico State and Idaho after the 2017 season.
As for Jamestown's NSIC application, Hieb says the conference will visit campus later this month. If the league that already houses MSUM and Minot State extends an invitation to the Jimmies, the school would have to apply to the NCAA by February of 2024. The NCAA would then make a decision in July, Hieb said.
"We have got some time. We have got some options that we're looking at and some different possibilities," Heib said. "It's on the top of my priority list, but it's by no means panic mode."
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