Mid-Con says yes to NDSU
They went through four years and a day of stress, defeats and plenty of headaches.
But on Thursday, Aug 31, it was all smiles for Athletic Director Gene Taylor, President Joseph Chapman and NDSU athletics.
During a press conference at the Alumni Center, Mid-Continent Commisioner Tom Douple announced that NDSU had accepted an invitation to join the Conference.
“ I’m extremely pleased to announce they accepted. It’s all about leadership, and fortunately you had an individual here as president who stepped up and made a tough decision a number of years ago,” Mid-Con Commissioner Tom Douple said before receiving a large ovation from a crowd of boosters, coaches, athletes and media.
Douple was joined by Western Illinois President Al Golfarb, Athletic Director Tim Van Alstine and Mid-Con Associate Athletic Commisioner Ed Grom.
It was known that the Mid-Con was going to make a decision sometime in September, but Taylor and Chapman didn’t know officially until just over an hour before the press conference.
On Wednesday, the Mid-Con President’s Council had a teleconference and voted unanimously to invite NDSU into the conference. The entire process, though, took almost a year.
In August, a site team from the conference took an extensive tour of NDSU that included over 70 meetings with over 150 people.
“ We were looking at quality institutions, institutions that fit our values and character of our conference,” Douple said. “We decided as a group to make these site visits in a very aggressive manner because we wanted to get a true feel of what the institution was all about. We certainly did here at North Dakota State University.”
Douple walked into Taylor’s office and told him Chapman had officially accepted the offer. Douple said he wanted to be able to tell Taylor in person so he could see his reaction.
“ This is truly a historic day for us,” an emotional Taylor said, “When we made the announcement that we were going to make the transition to Division I, I think that was the point when Lynn (Dorn) and I started getting on the pones and President Chapman started to figure out how to get into a conference. That was our number one goal and priority.”
The Mid-Con was initially created in 1982, and of the original eight charter members, Western Illinois is the only school remaining.
NDSU was one of three schools invited to join the conference this year. The conference decided to expand after Chicago State left last year and Valparaiso told Mid-Con it was leaving after the 2006-07 school year.
On Wednesday, Douple and company traveled to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne to formerly invite the university to the conference.
Shortly after he announced NDSU’s admittance, they flew to Brookings, S.D., to invite SDSU.
Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, the Bison will begin playing league competition and will immediately be eligible for conference championships. The only teams that won’t compete in the Mid-Con are wrestling and football, as the league doesn’t currently sponsor those sports.
“ When I think about the effort, particularly the coaches and the student-athletes put into this, the commitment it takes to do this is not just something you take lightly,” Chapman said. “The quality of the effort and the commitment from the student-athletes, coaches and staff did and showed through.”