The Jackrabbits were good last year and the year before, and the FCS coaches think they’ll be good again in 2024.

South Dakota State, the back-to-back FCS national champion, was picked first in the FCS’s preseason coaches poll on Monday — receiving 25 of 26 first-place votes. Those Jackrabbits open their season in Stillwater at 1 p.m. Aug. 31.

FCS Top 10

Winners of 29 straight games, South Dakota State hasn’t lost since Sept. 3, 2022. That day saw the Jackrabbits fall to Iowa 7-3 in Iowa City. It was South Dakota State’s most recent game against an FBS opponent. Since, the Jackrabbits have averaged about 37 points a game during their winning streak that has seen them claim two national titles.

“I know that right now South Dakota State is an issue,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said Saturday. “I’ve said that all along. When you play a team that hasn’t lost a game in that many years, we definitely have our sites set on them and them only at this time.”

What makes South Dakota State all the more troubling to its foes is the fact that quarterback Mark Gronowski elected to return to Brookings instead of perhaps transferring up to the FBS level. Gronowski won the Walter Payton Award last season — given to the most outstanding offensive player in the FCS. He threw for 3,058 yards and 29 touchdowns to just five interceptions as he led the Jackrabbits to a 15-0 season. He also ran for another 402 yards and eight scores. In 2022, Gronowski was also the Jackrabbits’ starting quarterback, as he threw for 2,967 yards and 26 touchdowns and ran for another 12 scores as South Dakota State went 14-1 to a national title.

The Cowboys have played an FCS foe the past three seasons and won all of those games, but not all have been as seamless as they might’ve seemed going into the year. In the midst of a three-way quarterback dance last season, OSU beat Central Arkansas 27-13. In 2022, the Pokes slaughtered Arkansas-Pine Bluff 63-7. But in 2021 — a season in which the Cowboys were mere inches from a Big 12 title before winning the Fiesta Bowl — OSU beat Missouri State just 23-16. The Bears got into OSU territory twice in the final five minutes of that game but turned it over on downs on both occasions.

Needless to say, it doesn’t appear as if the start to the Cowboys’ 2024 season will be a traditional tune-up against an FCS foe.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – This week on Matters of the State, we look at the latest developments with the 2024 Presidential Election.

Political analyst Dave Price breaks down the state of the race after Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, and whether the campaign’s momentum is sustainable.

Brian Allen sits down with three registered South Dakota voters – one republican, one democrat, one independent – to discuss the state of politics and what they want to see from candidates moving forward.

Meanwhile, Black Hills National Forest is proposing fee hikes for motorized trails, and a new USDA report reveals an increase South Dakota farm real estate value.

Matters of the State airs Sundays at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. on KSFY, and 10 a.m. on KOTA.

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