The Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) was a college athletic conference affiliated with the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA). As the name implies, member teams were located in the states of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

. The conference folded after the 2011–12 academic year.

History

The Dakota Athletic Conference was formed from a merger between the

North Dakota College Athletic Conference The North Dakota College Athletic Conference (NDCAC) was a collegiate athletic conference that ceased operations following the 1999–00 academic school year when it merged with the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference to form the Dakota Athletic ...

(NDCAC) and the

South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference The South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference (SDIC) was an NAIA-associated collegiate athletic conference that ceased operations following the 1999–2000 academic school year when it merged with the North Dakota College Athletic Conference to form ...

(SDIC), effective the 2000-01 academic year. Ten schools were a part of the conference in its history, consisting of the following: * Formerly from the NDCAC:

Dickinson State University Dickinson State University (DSU) is a public university in Dickinson, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. It was founded in 1918 as Dickinson State Normal School and granted full university status in 1987. History Di ...

Jamestown College , mottoeng = Light and Truth , established = , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Christian , endowment = $45 million , staff = , faculty = , president = Polly Peterson , p ...

, the

University of Mary The University of Mary (UMary or simply Mary) is a private, Benedictine university near Bismarck, North Dakota. It was established in 1959 as Mary College. The university is the largest degree-granting institution in western North Dakota. It ha ...

Mayville State University Mayville State University (MSU or MaSU) is a public university in Mayville, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. History Founded as a normal school by provision of the North Dakota Constitution in 1889, Mayville Stat ...

Minot State University Minot State University (MSU or MiSU) is a public university in Minot, North Dakota. Founded in 1913 as a normal school, Minot State University is the third-largest university in North Dakota, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. ...

and

Valley City State University Valley City State University (VCSU) is a public university in Valley City, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. Founded in 1890 as Valley City State Normal School, a two-year teachers' college, it was authorized to confe ...

* Formerly from the SDIC:

Black Hills State University Black Hills State University (BHSU) is a public university in Spearfish, South Dakota. Close to 4,000 students attend classes at its campus in Spearfish, at sites in Rapid City and Pierre, and through distance offerings. Enrollment comes from ...

Dakota State University Dakota State University (DSU) is a public university in Madison, South Dakota. The school was founded in 1881 as a normal school, or teacher training school. Education is still the university's heritage mission, but a signature mission of tech ...

, Si Tanka University-Huron and

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (South Dakota Mines, SD Mines, or SDSM&T) is a public university in Rapid City, South Dakota. It is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and was founded in 1885. South Dakota Mines offers ba ...

The DAC was one of the only NAIA conferences to have a television contract;

America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.

owned the broadcast rights to the conference, although most of the games were only carried through the network's subscription service, B2 Networks.

Chronological timeline

* 2000 - The Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) was founded due to a merger of the

(NDCAC) and the

(SDIC). Charter members included

, the

and

from the NDCAC, and

, Si Tanka University-Huron and

from the SDIC, effective the 2000-01 academic year. * 2005 - Si Tanka-Huron left the DAC after the school was declared to close, effective after the 2004-05 academic year. * 2006 - Mary left the DAC to join the Division II ranks of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) as a member of the

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...

(NSIC), effective after the 2005-06 academic year. * 2011 - On July 1, 2011 Dakota State announced they were leaving the DAC to become an NAIA Independent (). Additionally, member schools Black Hills State, Minot State and South Dakota Mines also left the DAC while in the process of transitioning to

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

as NCAA D-II Independents: (Black Hills State would later join the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

(RMAC) and Minot State would later join the NSIC during the 2012-13 academic year, while South Dakota Mines would later the RMAC during the 2014-15 academic year), all effective after the 2010-11 academic year. * 2012 - The DAC would cease operations as an athletic conference, effective after the 2011-12 academic year; as many schools left to join their respective new home primary conferences: Dickinson State left for the

Frontier Conference The Frontier Conference is a List of college athletic conferences in the United States, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference was founded in 1934. Member institut ...

while Jamestown, Mayville State and Valley City State became

NAIA independent schools NAIA independent schools are four-year institutional members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) that do not have formal conference affiliations. NAIA schools that are not members of any other athletic conference are ...

(which all four of them would eventually join the

North Star Athletic Association The North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) that began play in the 2013–14 school year. The conference currently has eight full member ...

(NSAA); Jamestown, Mayville State and Valley City State as part of the charter members during the 2013-14 season alongside former DAC conference mate and NAIA Independent Dakota State; and Dickinson State during the 2014-15 season coming from the Frontier).

Member schools

Final members

The DAC ended with four full members, only one was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

school:

Former members

The DAC had six former full members, only two were

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2000 till:2020 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.9,0.7,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.8,0.9,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:2000 till:2011 text: Black Hills State (2000–2011) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2012 text: D-II Ind. bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:

Rocky Mountain The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

bar:2 color:Full from:2000 till:2011 text: Dakota State (2000–2011) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2013 text: NAIA Ind. bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text:

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

bar:3 color:Full from:2000 till:2012 text: Dickinson State (2000–2012) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:2014 text:

Frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:2014 till:end text:

bar:4 color:Full from:2000 till:2012 text: Jamestown (2000–2012) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:2013 text: NAIA Ind. bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2018 text:

bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2018 till:end text:

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

bar:5 color:Full from:2000 till:2012 text: Mayville State (2000–2012) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:2013 text: NAIA Ind. bar:5 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:6 color:Full from:2000 till:2011 text: Minot State (2000–2011) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2012 text: D-II Ind. bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text: Northern Sun bar:7 color:Full from:2000 till:2005 text: Si Tanka-Huron (2000–2005) bar:8 color:Full from:2000 till:2011 text: South Dakota Mines (2000–2011) bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2015 text: D-II Ind. bar:8 color:OtherC2 from:2015 till:end text:

bar:9 color:Full from:2000 till:2006 text:

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

(2000–2006) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2006 till:end text: Northern Sun bar:10 color:Full from:2000 till:2012 text: Valley City State (2000–2012) bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2012 till:2013 text: NAIA Ind. bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:N color:red from:2000 till:2012 text:Dakota Athletic Conference bar:N color:blue from:2012 till:end text:Post-DAC ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2000 TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(0,25) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Dakota Athletic Conference membership history"

Sports

Member schools fielded men's and women's teams in cross country,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. Men's-only sports were

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, while

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

were only offered for women.

References

{{NAIA conference navbox Sports leagues disestablished in 2012 College sports in South Dakota College sports in North Dakota 2000 establishments in North Dakota 2000 establishments in South Dakota