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RMAC adds Black Hills State

Black Hills State University, a prospective Division II member located in Spearfish, S.D., will join the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference beginning in 2012-13.

Black Hills State will be the 14th member of the league beginning in 2012 with the departure of Nebraska-Kearney to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. Nebraska-Kearney’s last year as an RMAC member will be 2011-12.

The Yellow Jackets will also join the league next year as an associate member in softball. With the addition of Black Hills State and Colorado Christian (which is starting softball next season), the RMAC will have 14 softball-playing institutions in 2012.

“The RMAC is one of the primary reasons we chose to move to Division II,” said Black Hills State President Kay Schallenkamp.”The institutions in the conference are very similar to Black Hills State, and we welcome the athletics competitiveness in the league.”

Black Hills State is completing its first candidacy year in the Division II membership process this year and will enter a second this fall. The school is on track to be a provisional member in 2012-13 and could become an active NCAA member by 2013-14.

Currently a member of the NAIA and the Dakota Athletic Conference, Black Hills State has an enrollment of 4,700 students and offers 12 varsity sports (men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s golf, softball, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and women’s volleyball).

The RMAC is an NCAA Division II conference with 10 member institutions in Colorado [Adams State, Colorado Christian, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State-Pueblo, Fort Lewis, Mesa State, Metro State, Regis (Colorado), Colorado-Colorado Springs and Western State], two in Nebraska (Chadron State and Nebraska-Kearney) and two in New Mexico (New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico).