STATE WEEK

[coyote70]

To follow-up gman:

Many know this, but back in the late sixties and throughout the seventies many felt that, yes, State was the big rivalry but Augie and Morningside couldn't wait to beat us too. We also had a rivalry with UND. NDSU and UNI were a little further down the road. I my opinion we (USD) had more rivals in the NCC than any other school.

In the 1970s head coach Joe Salem stated more than a few times that USD had to focus more on beating the North Dakota schools. He was right in my opinion. I think in a way that is the thinking SDSU is espousing: beat NDSU and the in-state rivalry will take care of itself.

[GoYotes]

Due to the current geographic make-up of the Summit League and the MVFC the closest all sport rival for both USD and NDSU is SDSU. Therefore both claim SDSU as their primary rival. As long as UND stays in the Big Sky this will continue to be the case. Even if they had they stayed in the same conference the USD vs UND rivalry would have likely never risen to the level of the SDSU vs NDSU rivalry simply because of distance. The distance from Brookings to Fargo is about 185 miles whereas the distance from Vermillion to Grand Forks is 375 miles.