Intramural Sports FAQs

The Intramural Sports program provides opportunities for the students of South Dakota State to participate in a competitive, recreational activity with their friends against their peers.  The program offers this participation without the time commitments of practice, while still allowing them the chance to improve upon their physical fitness, social wellness, and self-image.  

The Intramural Sports program offers a variety of leagues each semester for teams, as well as special events and tournaments most weekends for individuals to participate in.

The Intramural Sports program is open to all South Dakota State University students as a perk of their Wellness Center membership.  Not a student?  No worries.  For faculty/staff, and community members, the Intramural Sports program offers the opportunity to purchase semester-participation passes.  Each of these passes will allow the individual the opportunity to participate in any and all programming from the Intramural Sports program.  

For Wellness Center members, the Intramural Sports pass costs $25 per semester.

For non-members, the Intramural Sports pass costs $50 per semester.

For single day Special Events, a pass cost $10 per sport.

Purchase an Intramural Sports pass

Varsity athletes are allowed to participate in the Intramural Sports program at the determination of their respective coaches.  That being said, they are not allowed to participate in sports similar to that which they are currently participating in on the varsity level.

If you are hoping to participate, but don't know if you have enough to make up a full team, take advantage of the free agent system.  Many teams will indicate whether or not they are interested in picking up players for their team rosters.  Throughout registration, you will want to check with various teams to inquire as to if you can play with them.  Alternatively, if we have enough free agents, we will work to combine the free agents to create teams when possible.

The maximum number of team members allowed is dependent upon the sport being played.  While we require teams to have the minimum number needed to play on the court or field at registration, we typically allow teams to have at most double the number of players needed on their roster.  For example, when playing basketball, the minimum needed on a valid roster at registration would be 5, and the maximum allowed would be 10.

Sport Clubs are Registered Student Organizations that are managed by the Wellness Center.  Some of these clubs practice and compete on the regional or national level against other institutions, while others operate on a recreational or instructional level only.  The Intramural Sports program provides an opportunity for students and members to compete against each other in different single-gendered, co-recreational, and open leagues.

Sport Club members are able to also participate in Intramural Sports with some special caveats.  Each individual sport has rules revolving around the number of Sport Club members of a similar or like sport are allowed to play on the same team.  Ex:  The Baseball Club would be limited on the number of members allowed to participate on an Intramural softball team.

The answer to this question is dependent upon the individual sport.  In the Intramural Sports program, we offer single-gendered, co-recreational, and open leagues and events.  A number of our larger sports will have a single-gendered league occur in one semester, with a co-recreational league in the other.  In these leagues, participants are allowed one team per league.  

With sports where single-gendered and co-recreational leagues are offered simultaneously, participants are allowed to play on two total teams; one single-gendered and one co-recreational.

Single-gendered leagues are leagues where all teams are made up exclusively of participants of a specific gender.  Our co-recreational leagues allow participation from all genders together, however, there is a requirement for the number of participants of each gender to constitute a valid team.  In open leagues, there is no requirement to the makeup to a team roster.  Some teams may be of a single-gender, while others may not.

Note:  Females may participate in men's leagues.  However, this participation would preclude participation in a women's league.  This often occurs when a sport does not have enough registered participants to run a full league.

For most of our offerings, students are able to participate free of charge.  All others interested in participation (faculty/staff, community) are required to purchase a semester Intramural Sports pass.  This pass is $25 for Wellness Center members and $75 for non-members.  (Non-member access is limited only to intramural sports access and does not include any other facility access and usage)  

In some instances, teams are required to pay an off-campus facility charge.  This amount varies based upon the activity, but it is a team fee rather than an individual participant fee.  These fees are collected to help to offset the costs of facility space when non-Wellness Center facilities are needed.

The Intramural Sports program uses a number of different facilities based upon the activity.  Most often, indoor sports will be played at the Wellness Center.  Outdoor Sports, with the exclusion of softball, are played at the Competitive Sports Field Complex located across the street from the Wellness Center to the North of the Performing Arts Center. 

The Intramural Sports program also makes use of Brookings Parks, Recreation & Forestry facilities for our Broomball and Softball activities.  To a limited extent, SDSU Athletics facilities are also used for some events.

All locations and play times will be posted online for teams to see.

All information with regard to your individual team schedule can be found by accessing the Fusion portal and Fusion IM.  Please click here for more information on using Fusion IM.

Teams are scheduled to participate in regular-season matchups once per week.  For some sports, a double-header format is used, in which case a team will participate in two back-to-back contests. Teams will play an average of 4-6 regular-season contests per season.

Based upon format, teams will then qualify for playoff participation. Playoff participation is always sportsmanship dependent. The playoff format will be announced no later than the weekend prior to the end of the regular season.

The Intramural Sports program will use the Playoff Draft feature in Fusion IM for all playoff bracketing. This tool will allow teams to seek to ensure that they are able to at the very least participate in their first-round playoff matchup without the need of rescheduling. Where teams during the regular season are guaranteed to play at the same time each week, this guarantee is not possible during playoff participation.

Prior to the close of registration, it is still possible for participants to change their time slots of participation. To do so, follow the steps found here.

To participate in Intramural Sports activity, all participants must check-in with their MyJacks Card or a photo ID with proof of IM pass.

When teams are unable to participate in their scheduled matchups, one of two things will occur.  Teams are allowed to contact the Competitive Sports office up until 3 p.m. on the day of their game or Friday to default a matchup. When a team defaults, they are letting the office know that they are unable to play and are therefore accepting a loss. As this allows the office time to contact staff and other affected participants, the defaulting team will be granted a '4' sportsmanship grade.  The team also retains playoff eligibility. Teams are allowed one default per season.

If a team does not meet this deadline and doesn't show for their scheduled game, or does not have the minimum number of participants to play by the time of the game, they are at risk of forfeiting.  As the team has not informed the office of their intent to miss the game, they will receive a loss and a '0' sportsmanship grade.  The team also loses their playoff eligibility.  As the Intramural Sports program no longer requires forfeit deposits, all members of the offending team are suspended from intramural sports participation until the forfeit fee payment of $25 has been made at the Wellness Center Welcome Desk.  Each forfeit shall cost the team $25, however, upon the 2nd forfeit, the offending team shall be removed from participation for the remainder of the season.

Please note that this suspension is program-wide.  If you forfeit a game in softball, you will not be eligible to participate in volleyball until this fee is paid.

Forfeit procedure changes depending upon the sport. Please visit the rules for the sport you are playing for more information.

Upon ejection from an intramural sports contest, the offending individual must vacate the premises immediately. The Competitive Sports professional staff will contact the ejected party the following business day to set up a meeting to discuss the ejection. All ejections will carry at minimum a suspension for the next scheduled contest. Upon the conclusion of the meeting between the Competitive Sports professional staff and the participant, the staff will inform the participant in writing of any further consequences no later than the close of business on the following workday.

If your score is incorrectly listed online, contact the Competitive Sports office at sdsu.competitivesports@sdstate.edu with the details of the contest (Date, Time, Opponent, Score) and we will follow-up with both teams and adjust accordingly. All captains should be verifying the result of the contest prior to departing after their contests have concluded.

We can't run our program without students. All of our staff are current students at SDSU who have made the decision to come out and work with us to help provide a rewarding experience for our participants.  If you would like to work with our program as an official, please complete an application and we will reach out. Currently, we pay our officials $9.60 per hour. All training is paid and provided so don't worry if you've never officiated before. We're on the hunt for potential and a willingness to learn, grow, and have fun!

Applications can be found here.