Jackrabbits Athletics shines in competition and in the classroom

Success in intercollegiate athletics at South Dakota State the past decade has been about as much on the competition field as it has been in the classroom. SDSU student-athletes are among the most successful in NCAA Division I sports when considering:

• Jackrabbits teams have claimed 43 regular season or postseason conference titles in eight different sports in the past 10 years.
• SDSU has won five Summit League Commissioner’s Cups for overall athletic excellence, six William Steinbrecher Men’s All-Sports Awards and two Helen Smiley Women’s All-Sports Awards.
• Jackrabbits teams have qualified for NCAA Tournament events 28 times with several other teams earning berths in other Division I postseason events.
• Since 2019, SDSU is the only Division I program to have its football and men’s and women’s basketball programs all reach the postseason eight straight years.

Individually, student-athletes at SDSU have combined for nearly 950 all-conference honors the past 10 years, including 54 All-Americans. SDSU student-athletes accumulated nearly 2,500 academic all-conference awards in that time, with 38 earning the distinction of Academic All-Americans.

2022 Highlights

• Led by individual champion Gabe Peters, the Jackrabbits men’s cross country team claimed its Summit League-record seventh consecutive championship and the program’s ninth conference title in the last 10 years in October.
• The Jackrabbits women’s basketball team earned its first Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship in March, defeating Seton Hall 82-50 in front of a capacity crowd at Frost Arena. The team ended the year 29-9, winning 26 of its last 28 games.
• Jackrabbits softball earned its second consecutive Summit League Conference Championship and trip to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship Tournament in 2022. The squad finished the year with a 41-13 record and during the two-year span had an overall mark of 84 wins and 21 losses. A total of 15 student-athletes were named Easton/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar-Athletes after earning a 3.5 GPA or better. As a team, SDSU ranked 12th in the NCAA with a 3.65 cumulative GPA.
• The Jackrabbits football team won its first national championship in 2022, defeating North Dakota State 45-21 in Frisco, Texas. The team won a school-record 14 consecutive games following a loss to Iowa to begin the year. The Jacks' 8-0 Missouri Valley Football Conference record earned the program its first outright conference title in the FCS era.