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This is from The Brookings Register
Legislators address D-I switch
By John Andrews
* Local lawmakers answer questions at Saturday forum
Brookings County legislators voiced their support for South Dakota State University’s planned reclassification to Division I status Saturday during the first legislative forum of the year.
Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee, District 7 Sen. Arnold Brown and Reps. Orville Smidt and Sean O’Brien, all Brookings Republicans, fielded questions from the audience in the Brookings city council chambers and from those listening to the radio simulcast.
Responding to a question from the radio audience, Brown said there were currently four bills circulating that opposed SDSU’s switch. Another bill was recently defeated, he said. Brown said he was undecided on the move for a long time, but began supporting it when plans for a research park began to surface.
“Division I can be used for a lot more things than just athletics,” Brown said. “We can attract better professors, we can attract more research. We can tie that in with our research park. And hopefully, an industry or somebody that would want to locate here would say we have a research park, we have a Division I school, we have excellent professors and excellent students. So I’m supporting going to Division I, and I’ll work as hard as possible to kill any other bill that comes up.”
Sens. Frank Kloucek, D-Scotland, and Clarence Kooistra, R-Garretson, have been outspoken opponents to the move among state legislators, saying the switch would not be a good move for SDSU. Kloucek introduced legislation opposing the move during the 2003 legislative session, which was ultimately defeated. But O’Brien said the issue was debated last year and the Board of Regents approved the Legislature’s request to allow the move.
“It’s not appropriate to second-guess all of the discussions and the action that was taken last year by the Board of Regents,” O’Brien said. “There’s been so much activity and action taken since that time, it would be counterproductive to discuss those issues any further.”
SDSU officials are currently putting the finishing touches on a Division I-AA football-only conference that will include North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, California-Davis, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Southern Utah and St. Mary’s of California. The university’s other 19 sports will begin competition in Division I-A beginning in the 2004-2005 academic year.
Smidt said the move definitely poses challenges to the university, and old rivalries make it especially difficult, but he also supports the switch.
“I, too, think that you’ve got to move forward,” Smidt said. “All of these divisions out there — Division I, II, III and NAIA — they’re all changing and shifting. When people say, ‘I want to go to a Division I school,’ well, there’s none to go to in South Dakota. There will be now.”
He said he especially understands the emotions that go along with the move, having grown up in the Brookings area. But he said it’s the right move for the university.
“I look forward to working in the appropriations process in the Legislature to actually increase funding to the Division I school,” he said. “I find nothing wrong with that.”
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