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The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
July 3, 2008
St. Paul, Minn. - Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Commissioner Butch Raymond has announced the results from the NSIC Board of Directors teleconference call dealing with expansion. The Board of Directors, consisting of the ten NSIC Presidents/Chancellors, voted to expand the NSIC to 14 teams with the addition of Augustana College (Sioux Falls, S.D.), the University of Minnesota Duluth (Duluth, Minn.), Minnesota State University Mankato (Mankato, Minn.) and Saint Cloud State University (Saint Cloud, Minn.). These four institutions, which were all voted on individually, will begin participating within the NSIC in the 2008-09 season.
"The NSIC is pleased to welcome these four institutions into our league. We feel all four of these programs are a good fit with strong academic traditions in NCAA DII athletics. The competitiveness of these athletic teams will enhance all 17 sports that we currently offer," commented Raymond.
Minnesota State will hold a press conference in Mankato today, April 2nd at 5:30 p.m. in the Johnson Alumni Room in Taylor Center. Augustana College will hold a press conference in Sioux Falls, S.D. at the Severson Lounge in the Commons Building on the Augustana Campus on Tuesday, April 3rd at 3:00 p.m. Minnesota Duluth will hold their press conference at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4th in the Hall of Fame room of the Sports & Health Center. St. Cloud State will announce the day and time of their press conference in the near future.
Three of the four institutions are very familiar with the NSIC as they are former members. Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State and Saint Cloud State were all charter members of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference (NIC). With the four additions, the NSIC will now consist of 14 teams over a five state area with nine institutions hailing from Minnesota, two in South Dakota, and one in Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota.
The Northern Intercollegiate Conference (NIC) began in 1932 as the Northern Teacher's Athletic Conference. Charter members included Bemidji State, Mankato State, Moorhead (MN) State, St. Cloud State and Winona State. In 1942 the conference name was changed to the State Teacher's College Conference of Minnesota. The conference switched its name to the Northern Intercollegiate Conference in 1962. In the spring of 1992 the NSIC was formed out of the merger of the NIC, the men's conference, and the women's Northern Sun Conference (NSC). The NSC had existed since 1979. In the 1999-00 academic year, the NSIC became an expanded 10-team league from a previous seven-member conference by adding Wayne State College (Wayne, Neb.) Concordia University-St. Paul (St. Paul, Minn) and the University of Minnesota, Crookston (Crookston, Minn.). The conference featured eight members from 2004-05 until 2005-06 with the departure of Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota-Morris, but expanded back to 10 teams in 2006-07 as the University of Mary (Bismarck, N.D.) and Upper Iowa University (Fayette, Iowa) joined the league.
