BROOKINGS, S.D.—South Dakota State had not won a North Central Conference football championship since 1963. It had been in the NCAA Division II playoffs once, in 1979, and lost 50-7 at Youngstown State.
The Jackrabbits did pop up with a 42-30 upset of North Dakota State in 1993, a victory in which Adam Vinatieri kicked the extra points.
"I recruited Adam,'' John Stiegelmeier said. "It was so long ago that you hand-delivered letters of intent, and I did that with Adam.''
Stiegelmeier was an assistant to Mike Daly at the time. Daly resigned after six winning seasons – outstanding by South Dakota State's standards – and was replaced by Stiegelmeier for the 1997 season.
The Jackrabbits defeated UC-Davis on the road in Stiegelmeier's first game, then went 3-6 in the North Central: wins vs. St. Cloud State, North Dakota State (a so-so Bison team) and Morningside and losses to North Dakota, Mankato State (the last season before changing to Minnesota State), South Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha, Augustana and Northern Colorado (Division II national champion).
South Dakota State remained in the North Central for another half-dozen seasons, withg non-conference opponents such as Wisconsin-Stout, Winona State and Wayne State.
Three weeks before the 2003 season opener vs. Northwest Missouri, in mid-August, the South Dakota State administration announced that it was joining North Dakota State in a move to Division I athletics (and to what has become known as FCS football).
Fred Oien was the SDSU athletic director. He gathered the coaches for a meeting in advance of the announcement. Stiegelmeier remembers this cheery message: