Aug. 27—SIOUX FALLS — As of today, Aug. 27, it is officially college football season in South Dakota.
South Dakota School of Mines visits Drake.
Augustana travels to Missouri Western.
Northern State welcomes Chadron State to Dacotah Bank Stadium.
And the USF Cougars host Black Hills State at Bob Young Field.
The rest of the state's teams take the field on Saturday, with Mount Marty hosting Clarke, USD hosting Central Connecticut State, a sellout crowd invading Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings for South Dakota State vs. the Stetson Hatters and Dakota State and Dakota Wesleyan kicking off their seasons in NAIA with the Chamber of Commerce rivalry game.
Welcome back, college football.
It figures to be another thrilling season here in the Rushmore State, because once again, there are good teams ready to play tremendous football.
USD and SDSU have become two of the premier teams in Division I FCS, the second-highest classification of college football. The Jackrabbits won national championships in 2022 and 2023 and have remained a national contender, while USD has made the playoffs three straight years and has moved onto the short list of FCS teams who could conceivably win it all.
Jacks quarterback Chase Mason and Coyotes running back Charles Pierre are two of the most exciting players at the FCS level, both of whom could be playing on Sundays in the near future.
Their rivalry game is set for Halloween in Brookings.
In Division II, Augustana, Northern State and USF are all expected to contend in the NSIC this year. The Vikings narrowly missed a third straight conference title last year while the Wolves and Cougars both went 7-4 and hope to take the next step in 2026.
Black Hills State and the School of Mines both appear to be rebuilding this season in the challenging Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
For those who don't know or have never been to a Division II game, it's a highly underrated level of football.
The top D2 teams are on par with many solid FCS teams and consistently send players to the NFL (or, in the transfer portal era, to Division I).
Augustana quarterback Gunnar Hensley and USF wide receiver Hank Brown, just to name two, are the kind of talents that could easily succeed at a higher level.
The same goes for the NAIA. While the bigger crowds will be in Brookings and Vermillion on Saturday, there will be a terrific small-town, small-school environment in Madison when the Tigers and Trojans stage their rivalry game.
The two schools don't share a conference, so they have to make the effort to play each other. They brought the rivalry back in 2011 and introduced the Chamber of Commerce traveling trophy in 2017, and the rivalry has been meaningful for both programs.
How meaningful? Last year Dakota State went 8-2 and just missed the NAIA playoffs. One of their two losses was the season opener to a Tiger team that finished the season 4-7.
But it's gone both ways. The Trojans went 7-41 in Josh Anderson's first five seasons as coach, but a 34-30 win in the 2016 season opener felt like a turning point for a team that now plays in one of the finest facilities in NAIA.
Even better is the fact that hundreds of South Dakota natives makes up the rosters of these teams.
SDSU alone counts in-state talents Mason, wide receiver Jack Smith, offensive linemen Quinten Christensen, Will Paepke and John Pica, linebacker Chase Van Tol and defensive linemen Jace Sifore and Reis Kirschenman as some of their key contributors, while Augustana and USF's rosters are loaded with Sioux Falls Metro area talents.
Thirty years ago South Dakota had no Division I football.
USD and SDSU were good-not-great Division II teams toiling in the ultra-tough North Central Conference. The Vikings were also in the NCC and had it even tougher.
Most of the college teams in the state played in high school-caliber stadiums. The season was almost always over for all the state's teams by Thanksgiving.
Now there are sparkling, multi-million dollar stadiums all across the state. More than a dozen South Dakota natives are in NFL uniforms any given week. The USD-SDSU rivalry game will be on national TV. More than one team is likely to be playing well into December.
We've come a long way as a football state, and it feels like we've only scratched the surface.
So enjoy the season. It's gonna be awesome.
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