South Dakota Summit schools will wait to comment on life with Augustana

Just as the decision by Augustana to move to Division I is not just about sports, the sports part of it is not just about Augustana. Inevitably it is going affect the college athletic terrain in a state that is still relatively new to this business of competing at the NCAA’s highest level.

While visions of a Summit League basketball tournament that includes a Sioux Falls school will be inspiring conversations from sports fans for the extended future, Augustana’s announcement this week was not accompanied by an announcement that the Vikings have been accepted as a member by the conference that South Dakota and South Dakota State play in.

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In fact, Augustana has not yet submitted an application to become a Summit League member. It may very well be a foregone conclusion given the circumstances but for now it impedes official comment from the League office, which moved its headquarters from Elmhurst, Ill., to Sioux Falls in August.

“It’s always good to see institutions trying to improve themselves, be it academically or athletically,” said Summit League commissioner Tom Douple. “We have not had any conversations recently with Augustana University joining the Summit League with either our joint council or our presidents council.”

The current Summit League/Mid-Continent Conference, created in 1982, counts only Western Illinois as an original member. Arrivals and departures have been much more the rule than the exception.

The league welcomes former North Central Conference colleague North Dakota to the fold this season, making for a nine-school conference in basketball after sitting at eight  last season.

Since the inclusion of North Dakota State and South Dakota State in 2007, the geographic center of the conference has edged westward. It has included the departures of Oakland, Centenary, IUPUI, Oral Roberts, Southern Utah and Kansas City, and then the return of Oral Roberts – along with the addition of Denver, South Dakota, Omaha and North Dakota.

“Membership is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” said Douple, who is obviously intensely familiar Summit membership. “We worked with UND for years in getting them back in. The same with Oral Roberts after they left and came back. It’s a process. We feel good about where we’re at right now.”

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None of which means inclusion of Augustana would be comparatively difficult. It just means necessary steps must be taken.

“As a commissioner it’s always my charge to have conversations with potential members,” Douple said. “We want the right fit; it’s not about the numbers and it never has been.”

What has changed since South Dakota State and South Dakota left Division II is that schools making the transition have to secure conference membership prior to starting the clock on a transition period that takes four years. The first two years are devoted to developing a strategic plan, with a self-study assignment set for the third year. In the fourth year, a group from the NCAA makes a campus visit and reviews the athletic programs.

SDSU had no conference affiliation secured at the time it made the move, though it was able to land Mid-Continent/Summit membership in 2006 after three trying seasons – in most sports, anyway -- as an independent. USD had the Great West, a far-flung entity that, in hindsight, gave the school vital time to bring along its programs and build institutional infrastructure.

 “Good for them for thinking big,” South Dakota athletic director David Herbster said. “I’m all for a school making a move in the right direction academically – and not just athletically. This is not an athletic move, it has to be an institutional move. You have to look at it from the perspective that they’re thinking big and dreaming big.”

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Contingent upon inclusion in the Summit League – something administrators at member schools, as well as conference officials, are not publicly assuming at this point – the public focus would be on basketball.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, this would be basketball-driven,” said SDSU track coach Rod DeHaven, a Jackrabbit alum plenty familiar with the days when Augustana shared a conference with South Dakota State and South Dakota. “But you look at some of the Summit League’s other sports and there are dockets to be filled. If you have six teams show up for a conference tournament does that really feel like a championship?”

No matter for now. But the once-and-future rivals will tell the Vikings the struggle is real.

“The amount of support that (former USD president) Jim Abbott gave our Olympic sports was phenomenal,” USD track and field coach Lucky Huber said. “Part of the challenge at Augustana will be to get that type of support for those sports. We have a new outdoor track, a new soccer field – we’ve been supported pretty well here.”