09-24-2010 01:32 AM

These are tough times for North Dakota and it doesn’t have anything to do with the team’s performance on the football field.

The university recently had its 80-year-old nickname, the Fighting Sioux, stripped by the NCAA amid concerns that it was offensive to American Indians. And now the former Division II national champion, which is moving to Division I athletics and won’t be eligible for the playoffs until 2012, has learned that the five-team Great West Conference is on the verge of collapse.

The league’s two California teams are bolting for the Big Sky Conference as the realignment shuffle reaches the smaller leagues. That leaves just North Dakota, South Dakota and Southern Utah.

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