North Dakota Preps

While watching the Jimmies and the Vikings FB game on BEK last week the announcers said that Jamestown is looking at going DII and joining the NSIC. Is this something they are looking at for next year or a few years down the road? It would take some rearranging for the NSIC in men's and women's BB as far as travel partners go. Right now Minot and U of Mary are travel partners and MSU-M and Northern are travel partners and I am guessing one of them would be split up and matched with Jamestown. I know the Jimmie VB program is top notch and men's BB has been very solid as well (we'll see what happens this year) but can football compete at the DII level? What about women's BB? {I am not a follower of Jimmie athletics so my knowledge may be wrong} It would be interesting to see if Dickinson State would move up as well or if they would be content to stay where they are at. I don't see VCSU or Mayville moving up, but I could be completely wrong about that.

Sportsrube wrote:While watching the Jimmies and the Vikings FB game on BEK last week the announcers said that Jamestown is looking at going DII and joining the NSIC. Is this something they are looking at for next year or a few years down the road? It would take some rearranging for the NSIC in men's and women's BB as far as travel partners go. Right now Minot and U of Mary are travel partners and MSU-M and Northern are travel partners and I am guessing one of them would be split up and matched with Jamestown. I know the Jimmie VB program is top notch and men's BB has been very solid as well (we'll see what happens this year) but can football compete at the DII level? What about women's BB? {I am not a follower of Jimmie athletics so my knowledge may be wrong} It would be interesting to see if Dickinson State would move up as well or if they would be content to stay where they are at. I don't see VCSU or Mayville moving up, but I could be completely wrong about that.

Per travel partner talk
Someone in the NSIC will also have to go to the South Division from the North...if Jamestown is approved, they'd be in the North Division (Upper Iowa has left and was in the South Division).

My guess would be that SCSU or Northern State would move to the South Division; either school going down would then allow MSUM & Jamestown could travel together and Duluth gets paired with the remaining north division school.

I would say no, Jamestown football cannot compete at a D2 level without a lot of changes. Mary had a perennial playoff football team in the NAIA, and look where they are now. (lucky to win 2 games in a year, if you don't follow the Northern Sun very closely) Minot was usually .500 if not in the top half of the old NDCAC and DAC as well, and they struggle in D2 as bad as Mary is.

Dickinson State is content in the NAIA right now, and I've heard no talk of any kind of them wanting to move up. They do well in football in the regular season, but still struggle in the playoffs against the top teams.

In my opinion, the NAIA is where a lot of these schools like Mary and Minot belong (and even Crookston), not D2. But the NCAA name still is attractive to certain people, so if you get the right President and Athletic Director together at a school, they move that way even if it is not the best decision long term.

If you're Minot, Mary, or Jamestown (potentially) what is the benefit of playing D2 over NAIA?

Mandan wrote:I would say no, Jamestown football cannot compete at a D2 level without a lot of changes. Mary had a perennial playoff football team in the NAIA, and look where they are now. (lucky to win 2 games in a year, if you don't follow the Northern Sun very closely) Minot was usually .500 if not in the top half of the old NDCAC and DAC as well, and they struggle in D2 as bad as Mary is.

Dickinson State is content in the NAIA right now, and I've heard no talk of any kind of them wanting to move up. They do well in football in the regular season, but still struggle in the playoffs against the top teams.

In my opinion, the NAIA is where a lot of these schools like Mary and Minot belong (and even Crookston), not D2. But the NCAA name still is attractive to certain people, so if you get the right President and Athletic Director together at a school, they move that way even if it is not the best decision long term.

I agree with everything you posted. I have heard that Jamestown is looking at the move due to the large distances they travel in their current NAIA Conference. Why they aren't in the same conference as Mayville, Valley, and Dickinson is a mystery to me.

Sportsrube wrote:I agree with everything you posted. I have heard that Jamestown is looking at the move due to the large distances they travel in their current NAIA Conference. Why they aren't in the same conference as Mayville, Valley, and Dickinson is a mystery to me.

Jamestown has a president/athletic director that wanted to emphasize the "private" school and be in a conference with like-minded schools. They won't have that in D2, and would absolutely be welcomed back into the North Star with Dickinson, Valley City, etc, as that conference only has 5 football schools right now, with Presentation and Iowa Wesleyan no longer having football.

and now the GPAC is kicking them out of the conference.

Flip wrote:and now the GPAC is kicking them out of the conference.

I read that this morning. I find that fascinating.

The Schwab wrote:

Flip wrote:and now the GPAC is kicking them out of the conference.

I read that this morning. I find that fascinating.

Sure hope, for the athletes' sake, that the move to the NSIC is basically agreed upon already.

WalkingStick wrote:

The Schwab wrote:

Flip wrote:and now the GPAC is kicking them out of the conference.

I read that this morning. I find that fascinating.

Sure hope, for the athletes' sake, that the move to the NSIC is basically agreed upon already.

Do they join the North Star for a year before their transition if they are accepted to DII and the NSIC?

My guess is that they will be NAIA independent next year regardless of what the NSIC and NCAA say. If they are denied by either the NSIC or the NCAA my guess is they would end up in the NorthStar again. I think the GPAC was looking at this regardless of UJ's looking at leaving the conference when they accepted Waldorf into the GPAC.

I do not see Jamestown being competitive in the NSIC. I think their best move is to swallow their pride and return to the NorthStar. I believe their are a couple of schools (Vitterbo and Waldorf) looking to leave the NorthStar so they would be looking to add a team or two.

Sportsrube wrote:I do not see Jamestown being competitive in the NSIC. I think their best move is to swallow their pride and return to the NorthStar. I believe their are a couple of schools (Vitterbo and Waldorf) looking to leave the NorthStar so they would be looking to add a team or two.

Waldorf was added to the GPAC a few weeks ago...they were the GPAC's replacement team.

There's a lot of non-competitive teams in the NSIC right now that they could join (Crookston, Mary, Minot State, etc.). I think this is being driven by Hockey and you can't be in DI hockey and be an NAIA school...so they have to make the move to the NCAA level to become DI. (again, I said I believe...I do not know for sure if that's it or how that works; seems plausible)

Waldorf leaving the North Star is a huge blow, because that leaves 4 football teams. They lost Presentation and Iowa Wesleyan before this season started. Jamestown coming back would get them to 5, but that is still not enough for the conference to keep their automatic playoff qualifier beyond next season, as they have two years (2023 and 2024) to get to six. So all teams are exploring their options, which could be the Frontier for Dickinson St and D3 for Mayville. Jamestown could very well schedule all the current North Star teams next year if they have available games, but the conference itself is a goner unless they can find more teams that play football to join the conference. Those teams are not out there, unless you can convince some area D3 or D2 teams to move to the NAIA.

My two cents but I don't think Mayville would get accepted into the MIAC. They don't offer enough sports and they are nothing like MIAC schools academically.

If Mayville goes D3, I assume they'd try for UMAC. That conference isn't as picky, and it looks like they have only 6 football schools so I bet they'd accept any schools that want to join.

Mandan wrote:If Mayville goes D3, I assume they'd try for UMAC. That conference isn't as picky, and it looks like they have only 6 football schools so I bet they'd accept any schools that want to join.

Lots of travel in the UMAC for football (two bottom teams are from IL & MO) but not as much travel for the other sports as it's Iowa, Minnesota & Wisconsin for team locations

Mandan wrote:Waldorf leaving the North Star is a huge blow, because that leaves 4 football teams. They lost Presentation and Iowa Wesleyan before this season started. Jamestown coming back would get them to 5, but that is still not enough for the conference to keep their automatic playoff qualifier beyond next season, as they have two years (2023 and 2024) to get to six. So all teams are exploring their options, which could be the Frontier for Dickinson St and D3 for Mayville. Jamestown could very well schedule all the current North Star teams next year if they have available games, but the conference itself is a goner unless they can find more teams that play football to join the conference. Those teams are not out there, unless you can convince some area D3 or D2 teams to move to the NAIA.

I don't think Dickinson State would want to go the Frontier route again. They tried that a few years ago and it wasn't successful for them.

The Schwab wrote:

Mandan wrote:Waldorf leaving the North Star is a huge blow, because that leaves 4 football teams. They lost Presentation and Iowa Wesleyan before this season started. Jamestown coming back would get them to 5, but that is still not enough for the conference to keep their automatic playoff qualifier beyond next season, as they have two years (2023 and 2024) to get to six. So all teams are exploring their options, which could be the Frontier for Dickinson St and D3 for Mayville. Jamestown could very well schedule all the current North Star teams next year if they have available games, but the conference itself is a goner unless they can find more teams that play football to join the conference. Those teams are not out there, unless you can convince some area D3 or D2 teams to move to the NAIA.

I don't think Dickinson State would want to go the Frontier route again. They tried that a few years ago and it wasn't successful for them.

They probably don't really want to, but definitely are exploring all the possibilities. (Let's just say this is not just speculation by me, I've heard this first-hand.) Would the independent world be better? That is the question, and the only two choices if they can't find other teams to join the North Star. Plus, from a football standpoint, the last try in the Frontier was still with Hank Biesiot and his offense from the 70s, so they would be in better position to compete with the current coaching staff.

Pretty bold take calling out a guy with 258 career NAIA wins. Giving up 34.5 ppg year one and 46.6 ppg year two in frontier conference games probably had more to do with it than the offense. DSU has had success in the DAC/NorthStar because of their ability to pull guys from eastern MT. Unfortunately for them, the members of the Frontier pull better guys from MT.

Jimmies to the North Star for next season. Announced today.

Now the Men's basketball coach has resigned.

Flip wrote:Now the Men's basketball coach has resigned.

As of about an hour ago, the interim coach that took his place also resigned, per Dom Izzo.

BasketballMind wrote:

Flip wrote:Now the Men's basketball coach has resigned.

As of about an hour ago, the interim coach that took his place also resigned, per Dom Izzo.

Yep. Former Strasburg Clipper legend, Greg Ulland, is going to take over. What a mess.

What is going on over there? Tipoff for their 1st conference game of the season is in about 3 hours.