South Dakota Earns Rare Over-The-Air Appearance Against Iowa State

Arguably, the greatest surprise of the early-season television releases was South Dakota's spot against Iowa State in the Fox slot at 3:30 PM ET. South Dakota becomes the first FCS school to play on Fox since the network began airing college football in 2012. The Coyotes have earned the honor, making the FCS quarterfinals two years in a row.

With those two appearances came back-to-back ABC appearances. In 2023, ABC aired South Dakota's home quarterfinal game against North Dakota State. 1.09 million people watched the Coyotes lose to the Bison, despite the matchup competing directly with the Army-Navy Game.

ABC aired South Dakota's semifinal game at Montana State to counter TNT airing the College Football Playoff first-round game between Clemson and Texas. Despite the tough competition, South Dakota-Montana drew respectable viewership, with 1.37 million viewers.

While many Coyote fans remember these recent appearances, the program received ABC exposure decades ago. In 1978, the ABC cameras descended upon South Dakota's game against Nebraska-Omaha. Nebraska-Omaha entered the game with a 9-1 record, while South Dakota entered with a 6-3 record. Despite the different records, the game was the De facto North Central Conference championship, since both schools had 5-1 records in the conference.

Unfortunately, the game had limited carriage due to most of the region airing the Penn State-Maryland game. Thus, South Dakota’s educational network, or their current public broadcasting network, aired the game on tape delay. Three ABC stations did air the game live: Sioux City, Iowa’s KCAU, Mitchell, South Dakota’s KXON, and Omaha’s KETV. Those stations saw South Dakota upset Nebraska-Omaha 21-3.

Like sports broadcasting, South Dakota has come a long way since 1978. A third straight year appearing on over-the-air TV cements the Coyotes' place among the FCS elite. Now they’re a household name, all that’s missing is a title for the program.