Missed meet makes SDSU look awkward

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

JEFF KOLPACK The Forum
Sports - 02/17/2006

North Dakota State and South Dakota State have made it known that one of the best ways to get through the five-year Division I reclassification is for the two schools to work together. This week, the brothers had a little flare-up.

Sometime between a scheduled wrestling dual in Brookings last Friday and Tuesday, postponement turned to cancellation. Bad weather kept the Bison from hitting the road and it’s resulted in a few bad vibes.

The Bison want to reschedule. The Jackrabbits say it’s not possible.

“Our administration chose not to reschedule it because of facility conflicts,” SDSU head coach Jason Liles said.

Facility conflicts? The SDSU men’s basketball team has one home game remaining -- Saturday against NDSU. The women’s team has one home game left March 3.

That could mean:

A) The equestrian team is turning the Frost Arena floor into a dirt barn.

B) The Jacks didn’t pay the Frost heat bill because of the high cost of the Division I move.

C) Every high school state tournament in every winter sport is being played at Frost during every day of the week.

D) A few wrestlers followed four football players who joined the injury- and suspension-depleted men’s basketball team.

NDSU head coach Bucky Maughan has his theories, although he didn’t want to share them this week. Keep in mind the veteran coach is rarely one to not tell it like it is.

“Off the record, I can tell you a whole bunch of stuff,” Maughan said. “I’m suspicious that maybe they don’t want to wrestle us this year.”

Sarcasm aside, rescheduling the match is simply the right thing to do. Shutting down the season and ducking out of the dual is not the way to go about it at any athletic level, not to mention Division I college wrestling.

Maughan told a news conference audience Tuesday that the reason the dual won’t be rescheduled is because the Jacks couldn’t find a date.

“My response was, ‘We’re done three weeks early,’ ” Maughan said, in reference to no conference or national tournaments. “There are a lot of days in there.”

Asked who in the SDSU administration said there were facility conflicts, Liles said, “Our administration.” He then ended the brief phone interview saying, “I don’t want to comment on it anymore. I don’t feel I need to.” In its context, it’s not a big deal that the dual won’t go on. What is wrong is the serious lack of effort by the Jacks to make it happen. “We would like to wrestle them,” Maughan said. “It’s the one little easy thing left on our schedule.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546 or jkolpack@forumcomm.com