University Chronicle Extras:
Movies
|
Student Resources
|
Vote 04
|
Career
|
Scholarships
|
GradZone
News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Sports
NCC adds Duluth to league roster
By Matt Janda
Published:
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Some of the chaos that has been reigning in the North Central Conference has been settled.
After Morningside University's departure following the 2000 season, the announcements that the University of Northern Colorado and North Dakota State will go Division I left the conference with only seven teams. Tuesday's acceptance of the University of Minnesota-Duluth brings the conference back to the preferred even-number setup.
UMD will begin its participation in the NCC at the beginning of the 2004-05 season.
"We think it's an indicator of the value of the core group of institutions that we have, that we're able to attract an institution with such a great athletic and academic program like UMD," NCC Commissioner Mike Marcil said. "Even with the institutions that are now going Division I, we think the core group we have, plus the addition of UMD, puts us in a position to be one of the best conferences in the country."
Minnesota-Duluth had been actively seeking membership in the NCC for over a year, ever since NDSU's intentions became clear. Marcil said that the process of adding a team to the conference is no simple task.
"It was a very complicated process, primarily because of the institutions that were studying to go Division I," Marcil said. "At the very beginning, people were excited about UMD, but at that time, we also needed to provide some time to NDSU and UNC to identify which direction they were going to go."
Northern Colorado will leave the conference after this season and NDSU after the next, but the landscape of the NCC is already different. Minnesota-Duluth is likely to form competitive rivalries with SCSU, due to the close proximity to St. Cloud and the overall quality of its athletics. SCSU head football coach Randy Hedberg sees it as a move that will both help and hurt his program.
"I think that's a good move. We get someone to fill the shoes of Northern Colorado and I think Duluth will be a good opponent for us," Hedberg said. "They're competitive in their athletic program. It does add to the recruiting competitiveness, so we'll see how that progresses."
The upheaval may not be over, however. South Dakota State is looking into defecting to Division I as well. They are in the middle of a study to estimate the benefits of such a move, but have no target date for a decision. The conference is also considering the idea of adding two more teams to get back to the traditional 10-team format.
"We were at ten for many years, and we really believe that's the best number," Marcil said. "I think now the conference can now begin to study if there is any possibility of getting back to ten."
The North Central has long been considered one of the top athletic conferences in Division II. In the 53 years since the conference signed on with the NCAA, NCC schools have brought home 42 national team championships and 268 individual national titles.
