NDSU to enter Gateway Football ConferenceJeff Kolpack
The Forum - 03/06/2007
The Gateway Football Conference will likely open its front gate to North Dakota State on Wednesday.
Southern Utah athletic director Ken Beazer was contacted by NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor and South Dakota State athletic director Fred Oien on Tuesday. Beazer said he was told by both ?it looked positive? that their schools would be accepted into the Gateway.
Southern Utah is currently in the Great West Football Conference along with NDSU and SDSU.
?I?m extremely saddened on one point for selfish reasons with the Great West Football Conference,? Beazer said. ?I?m extremely happy for them. It?s a positive move for them.?
According to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper Web site, Gateway assistant com-missioner Mike Kern confirmed the conference will hold a media teleconference at 3 p.m. Wednesday followed by news conferences at NDSU and South Dakota State.
When asked if the league holds news conferences without plans to expand, Kern said, ?I don?t believe so.?
?Everyone had kind of known it?s been coming,? Beazer said. ?It was a matter of when the Gateway would make an official decision on it.?
When asked about Wednesday?s scheduled announcement, NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor paused, then said, ?I can?t deny it.?
NDSU spokesman Dave Wahlberg, speaking on behalf of school President Joe Chapman, said the university isn?t in a position to confirm anything.
?We?re waiting for the Gateway to announce their decision,? Wahlberg said.
The league presidents discussed expansion at their annual meeting Feb. 19 in St. Louis, but tabled the matter, saying they needed further information.
Gateway commissioner Patty Viverito met or talked with Gateway presidents individually last weekend. It?s not known when the actual vote took place.
NDSU and SDSU are expected to begin league play in 2008 ? the first year they are eligible for the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) playoffs. The two schools began the five-year Division I reclassification together in 2003 and said they would only join the Gateway if both were admitted.
The teams will likely leave the Great West Football Conference after this season. NDSU and SDSU helped form the league in 2004 along with California Poly, California Davis, Southern Utah, Northern Colorado and St. Mary?s College (Calif.).
But St. Mary?s dropped football and Northern Colorado joined the Big Sky Con-ference, leaving the conference with just five teams. A league needs six active NCAA members to be together for at least two years to be eligible for an FCS automatic playoff bid.
The Gateway has been an FCS power for several years. It sent four teams to the playoffs last year.
League members are Indi-ana State, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Southern Illi-nois, Western Illinois, Mis-souri State and Youngstown State (Ohio).
The league opened expan-sion talks when Western Kentucky left for the Sun Belt Conference after last season.
Expansion is not common in the Gateway. Western Ken-tucky was admitted in 2001 and Youngstown in 1997. Otherwise, the league has been stable since its inception in 1985.
Forum reporter Eric Peterson
contributed to this story.
Readers can reach Forum reporter
Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546.
Kolpack?s NDSU media blog can be found
at
www.areavoices.com