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 members are in Minnesota, with three members in South Dakota, two members in North Dakota, and one member each in the states of Iowa and Nebraska. It was founded in 1932. With the recent NSIC expansion, the original six member schools have been reunited. With the inclusion of the several new member institutions, it is one of the largest Division II conferences in the country with 16 members.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The conference was originally formed in 1951 as the State Teachers Conference, and was temporarily named the Pennsylvania State Teachers College Conference in 1956 before being named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in 1964. The conference is currently composed of 17 full-time members within Pennsylvania and 1 in West Virginia. The conference headquarters are located in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania and staffed by a commissioner, two assistant commissioners, and a director of media relations.
The University of Minnesota Morris is a public liberal arts college in Morris, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and was founded in 1960 as a public, co-educational, residential liberal arts college offering Bachelor of Arts degrees.
Laverne Clarence Gagne was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded.
Daniel DeWayne Severn, nicknamed "The Beast", is an American retired mixed martial artist, amateur wrestler, and professional wrestler. A UFC Hall of Fame member, Severn is considered one of the leading pioneers of mixed martial arts and the first true world-class wrestler to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is best known for his success in the early years of the UFC where he became the only UFC Triple Crown champion in history. Severn has also competed in King of the Cage, PRIDE FC, Cage Rage, WEC, RINGS and MFC, and holds a professional MMA Record of 101–19–7.
Nobuhiko Takada is a Japanese former mixed martial artist, retired professional wrestler, actor, and writer. He competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and the Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFI) in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming one of the highest figures of the "shoot-style" movement.
Daniel Allen Hodge was an American professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and boxer. He is renowned primarily for his wrestling career, where he competed both as an amateur and professional. A three-time NCAA champion, a middleweight Olympic silver medallist and a seven-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Hodge is widely considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. The Dan Hodge Trophy, named after him, is the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
The Northern Iowa Panthers are the athletic teams of the University of Northern Iowa. The university is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and competes in NCAA Division I.
Richard Alexander Glas is an American basketball coach who was most recently the head men's basketball coach at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. In a coaching career that spanned 1970 to 2017, Glas had various assistant and head coaching positions in college basketball and was head coach at Minnesota Morris from 1974 to 1979, Willamette from 1979 to 1984, North Dakota from 1988 to 2006, and Concordia from 2008 to 2017.
Sports in Minnesota include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, especially in the Winter Olympics, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations and active amateur teams and individual sports. The State of Minnesota has a team in all five major professional leagues. Along with professional sports, there are numerous collegiate teams including the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and St. Thomas Tommies in NCAA Division I, as well as many others across the Minnesota public and private colleges and universities.
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
The James Madison Dukes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent James Madison University (JMU), in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The name "Dukes" is derived from Samuel Page Duke, the university's second president. The Dukes play as members of the Sun Belt Conference. JMU was a charter member of the Colonial Athletic Association, which sponsors sports at the NCAA Division I level. In football, JMU participates in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division I, formerly known as Division I-A. The Dukes officially left the CAA and joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2022, participating in Division I FBS football and other sports sponsored by the conference.
James Samuel Malosky Sr. was an American football coach. He ranks 18th all-time in wins among college football coaches in all divisions. He was the head football coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth for 40 years from 1958 to 1997. He compiled a career record of 255–125–13 and is ranked second all-time in wins among NCAA Division II football coaches.
The Minnesota State Mavericks are the college athletic teams of Minnesota State University, Mankato. More than 600 students participate each year in athletics for the university. Most of the university's athletic teams compete at the NCAA Division II level in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete at the Division I level, respectively in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Minnesota State began competition in the NSIC in 2008–09, due to the dissolution of the North Central Conference. It was also one of the seven WCHA men's hockey members that left that league after the 2020–21 season to reestablish the CCHA, a move that led to the demise of the men's side of the WCHA.
The Minnesota State Mavericks football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the Minnesota State University, Mankato located in the U.S. state of Minnesota.
The Northern State Wolves are the athletic teams that represent Northern State University, located in Aberdeen, South Dakota, U.S., in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Wolves compete as members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference for all 13 varsity sports. Northern State has been a member of the conference since 1978, and they also have the second-smallest enrollment of the 14 member schools. In the 1990s, all members of the NSIC solely became members of NCAA Division II, after spending many years with dual membership with the NAIA.
The St. Cloud State Huskies are the athletic teams for St. Cloud State University. The university is primarily a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), and currently sponsors 18 NCAA Division II teams. SCSU also sponsors a women's Nordic skiing team through membership in the CCSA, as well as men's and women's Division I ice hockey teams that are members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (men) and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (women). The teams go by the nickname Huskies, and the school's mascot is a husky named Blizzard.
The Wayne State Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Wayne State College, located in Wayne, Nebraska, in intercollegiate sports at the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) in all sports since the 1999–2000 academic year. The Wildcats previously competed in the Central States Intercollegiate Conference (CSIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1976–77 to 1988–89; as well as in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) as a provisional member during the 1989–90 school year.
The Cornell Big Red wrestling team represents Cornell University of Ithaca, New York. In 2021, two-time NCAA All-American and former Big Red wrestler Mike Grey took over for Rob Koll, who left for Stanford after 28 years as head coach. Koll has led the team to eight top-five finishes in the NCAA Division I wrestling tournament, including second-place finishes in 2010 and 2011. The 2010 and 2011 finishes were the best ever for an Ivy League team. In 2012, Cornell wrestling finished fourth in the NCAA tournament, while crowning three individual national champions Kyle Dake (157 lbs), Steve Bosak (184 lbs) and Cam Simaz (197 lbs). This was the first time in program history when there were multiple national champions (3) in the same year. Additionally, Kyle Dake went on to become the only wrestler in U.S. history to capture four individual national championships in four different weight classes. Outside of the NCAA tournament, Cornell has been Ivy League champion a record 40 times and was league champion for 17 consecutive seasons between 2003 and 2019. During that streak the team won 92 consecutive Ivy League dual meets. Cornell has won the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championship 26 times including 11 consecutive titles between 2007 and 2017. These streaks remain the longest in wrestling history for their respective divisions.
The Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles are the athletic teams that represent University of Minnesota Crookston, located in Crookston, Minnesota, in intercollegiate sports at the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) since the 1999–2000 academic year; with the women's equestrian teams competing in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).
