Dakota Marker
Sport | Football |
---|---|
First meeting | November 30, 1903 NDSU 85, SDSU 0 |
Latest meeting | October 26, 2019 NDSU 23, SDSU 16 |
Next meeting | October 17, 2020 (at NDSU) |
Trophy | Dakota Marker |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 110 |
All-time series | North Dakota State leads, 63–42–5 |
Trophy series | North Dakota State leads, 10–6 |
Largest victory | North Dakota State, 85–0 (1903) |
Longest win streak | North Dakota State, 17 (1976–92) |
Current win streak | North Dakota State, 3 (2018-present) |
The Dakota Marker is the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual football game played between the rival Division I Championship Subdivision North Dakota State University Bison and the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits. Both schools are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The Marker
The trophy is a model replica of the quartzite monuments that marked the border between North and South Dakota when Dakota Territory split into two states along the Seventh Standard Parallel (45°56'07" N). The monuments were seven feet tall and ten inches square at the top, and were mined and inscribed near Sioux Falls. Charles bates placed 720 markers at half-mile intervals along the border in the summers of 1891 and 1892. The monuments inscribed with the initials "N.D." on the north side and "S.D." on the south side.[1]
Dakota Marker | |
---|---|
Description | Winning the annual NDSU/SDSU regular season football game |
Sponsored by | NDSU Chapter Blue Key National Honor Society & SDSU Student Association |
Location | Fargo, ND or Brookings, SD |
Country | United States |
First awarded | 2004 |
Currently held by | North Dakota State |
Adam Jones, then-President of the NDSU Chapter of Blue Key National Honor Society, proposed the trophy itself and unveiled it to the public on April 21, 2004 at a ceremony just outside Hankinson, North Dakota, a community near the North Dakota/South Dakota border.[2]
The inscriptions include: N.D., S.D., and 190 M (the distance between Fargo, ND and Brookings, SD along Interstate 29). The trophy weighs nearly 75 pounds and commonly carries around the field immediately after the game's conclusion by the winning team.
Rivalry History
NDSU and SDSU regularly played each other for several decades as members of the Division II North Central Conference. In 2004, the move by both schools to Division I FCS prompted the creation of the trophy, as both schools lost their primary in-state rivals (NDSU/UND and SDSU/USD) who both remained in Division II at the time. Both teams became members of the newly formed Great West Football Conference, and the annual NDSU/SDSU game took on more importance from a regional bragging rights standpoint as the "closest neighbor" football rivalry. The series continued when both teams joined the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2008. The series often proves decisive in determining the Missouri Valley conference championship winner each season and both teams have been regular playoff participants at the FCS level.
In addition to the regular season game played for the Marker each year, the two teams have met four times in FCS playoff games, all played in Fargo and all resulting in victories by North Dakota State. The Bison have won seven of the last eight FCS championships.
The Dakota Marker series currently stands in favor of NDSU 10–6. NDSU is currently in possession of the trophy after winning the latest game in the regular season series, a 23-16 victory in Brookings on October 26, 2019. The game was particularly notable for the visit of College GameDay, the flagship college football pregame show broadcast by ESPN. The show originated live from the SDSU campus on the morning of the game as the Bison entered the contest ranked #1 in FCS and undefeated at 7-0, with SDSU ranked #3 and coming in 6-1. The home team has won 10 of the 16 Marker games since the inception of the series.
The two teams have now met 110 times in their history, and the Bison lead the overall series 63-42, with 5 ties. Their 100th meeting was the first time they met in the playoffs (2012), with the Bison claiming a 28–3 victory. Overall, the Bison are 40–14 vs SDSU in Fargo with 3 ties (including the playoff victories in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018), and the Jackrabbits are 27–23 against NDSU in Brookings with 2 ties. The series includes 17 straight wins by the Bison from 1976–1992.
Game results
North Dakota State victories | South Dakota State victories | Tie games |
|
^The Marker was not at stake in these four games, as they were playoff games.[3]
See also
- List of NCAA college football rivalry games
- List of most-played college football series in NCAA Division I
References
- ^ https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/Boundaries/Boundaries.asp
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-29. Retrieved 2013-09-29.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "North Dakota St vs South Dakota St :: CFB Info". cfbinfo.com. Retrieved November 22, 2018.