FARGO — St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Crookston are both eliminating their football programs, both schools announced Tuesday, Dec. 10.

The Huskies and Golden Eagles are part of the 16-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in which Minnesota State Moorhead is a member. The NSIC is an NCAA Division II league.

St. Cloud State announced it's eliminating football, men's and women's golf, while adding men's soccer for the 2020 academic year.

"We made this extremely difficult decision because St. Cloud State faces a convergence of circumstances that required us to change our athletics offerings," St. Cloud State President Robbyn Wacker said in a statement.

St. Cloud State made the athletic changes to "Ensure Title IX compliance, and to address the financial sustainability and success of the university and its teams," the school release read.

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Minnesota-Crookston posted a release on its website about its decision to drop football.

“Discontinuing the football program was not an option we wanted to pursue, but as we worked through the process, it became evident that it was the right decision for the long-term health of our athletics department," said Minnesota-Crookston athletic director Stephanie Helgeson.

St. Cloud State posted a 4-7 record in the NSIC last fall, playing in the conference's North Division. Minnesota-Crookston went 0-11 last season, also playing in the North Division. The league had eight teams in both the North Division and South Division last season.

"It obviously impacts the North and South divisional play," said MSUM athletic director Doug Peters. "We will have to take a look at that. It will take some work to redo the schedule, but we have the teams to make it work."

The league will shrink to 14 teams in football next season.

"There is comfort in being a big league," Peters said of being able to absorb the two football programs being dropped. "On the other hand, it's still very difficult because you hate to see the number of opportunities for student-athletes to compete in our league change."

In recent seasons, NSIC teams played 11 conference football games, leaving no room for nonconference contests. Peters said that could change with the league losing two football programs.

"There has been a lot of conversation of playing a 10-game schedule before this news and I think that will be a topic of conversation moving forward," Peters said.

If the NSIC does allow for a nonconference contest in the future, Peters was asked if the Dragons would consider playing cross-town rival Concordia again in football. The Cobbers are a Division III program and the schools had a longtime football rivalry that was last played in 2007 due the NSIC changing its scheduling structure.

"I'm definitely open to looking at all possibilities," Peters said. "We will have to look and see what's best for Dragons football."

The NSIC had it written in its bylaws that institutions have to field a football team to be a member of the conference. The NSIC approved a change in its bylaws last week that football is no longer a requirement for league membership, according to an MSUM official.

The NSIC bylaws state, a league member shall: "Sponsor a minimum of 10 conference championship sports at the Division II level, including football" or "Sponsor a minimum of 11 conference championship sports at the Division II level, not including football."

For the current football players at St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Crookston, the NSIC will be waiving the conference's interconference transfer restrictions, the league office said in a news release.

The release also stated: "The development of the 2020 NSIC Football schedule with 14 sponsoring teams is under development."

Bemidji State head football coach Brent Bolte posted this statement on Twitter: "Shocked and honestly disappointed by the news of two schools dropping their football program. Feel terrible for the players and coaches who put their heart and souls into it, to have it simply taken away."