Zim on Jacks' 67-game Summit streak ending, SDSU football surviving portal, declining regional hoops crowds
HEY! We encourage you to listen to this show as part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, and most podcast platforms like the one you find here! So, if you enjoy the topics Matt & John cover, you'll get those topics, plus relevant local guests, every Monday through Thursday on Happy Hour... so we highly recommend you check that out!
What could possibly be a bigger local sports story than South Dakota State All-America offensive lineman Quentin Christensen turning down a $1 million NIL offer from an SEC school recently?
Not much, but the SDSU women's basketball team losing a Summit League regular season basketball game for the first time in 68 contests — which spans nearly four calendar years — was quite a whopper over the weekend.
Those were two of the main topics in a 75-minute weekly "Nobody's Listening Anyway" podcast on Happy Hour with Matt Zimmer on Monday. Zimmer confirmed with confidence in his sources that Christensen joins fellow South Dakota native Chase Mason as Jackrabbits who turned down seven-figure NIL offers.
This comes three days after the two week portal window closed for players to declare their free agency. SDSU head coach Dan Jackson will join Happy Hour on Wednesday to remark on that, plus the Jacks' top portal additions (many from Div. II) and, as importantly, lack of portal losses this season.
Meanwhile, North Dakota State finally became the first team to beat the Jackrabbit women since USD took down SDSU twice in 2022 — in a Feb. 5 regular season game and again in the Summit League tournament championship game on March 8.
This means the Bison ended a 54-game overall streak for the Jacks against conference opponents. So why was Saturday the day? How did NDSU pull this off on the Jacks' home court? And what does this mean for SDSU and the rest of the league for the rest of the season, now that (at least for a game) the walls have cracked?
Zim has answers and also explains why he feels the SDSU men will still be a threat in Sioux Falls in March despite a 10-10 record and 3-2 league mark that includes last Wednesday's loss to first place and still undefeated-in-conference NDSU.
Part of the chat about the two Bison basketball wins was the large and palpable crowds in both Brookings and Fargo for the showdowns with the Jacks. This led to a larger discussion about declining attendance the last several years at local and regional college basketball games in general. Well, except at SDSU (for the most part).
Zim and the host pick apart why not as many people go to games despite plenty of the Div. I and Div. II teams in the Dakotas being consistently decent-to-great. The pod's plane lands in Minneapolis with a word about the Minnesota Vikings and how they didn't fit into the playoff picture in a year when things were far more ripe-for-the-taking than most.
17 Jan 2026
Jacks-Bison hoops, Aaron Rodgers, FCS portal news, Indiana football & Husker hoops bizarro world
HEY! We encourage you to listen to this show as part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, and most podcast platforms like the one you find here! So, if you enjoy the topics Matt & John cover, you'll get those topics, plus relevant local guests, every Monday through Thursday on Happy Hour... so we highly recommend you check that out!
We are living in a college sports Bizarro World. Indiana is the No. 1 football team in America, while Nebraska sports the No. 8 men's basketball team. Let that sink in. In a "Nobody's Listening Anyway" episode that included plenty of the usual Jackrabbits, Coyotes, FCS, transfer port and Summit League basketball banter, Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer and the Happy Hour host took some time to digest this "what planet are we on" concept — Hoosiers football and Huskers basketball on heaters. Zim explains why he is enjoying Curt Cignetti and Indiana's rise, and not just because it is a once-in-a-lifetime rags-to-riches football story. Plus, Zim is engages the host — not just a Husker football zealot but a long-suffering "Nebrasketball" nut — about the excitement of Fred Hoiberg's squad potentially taking Big Red basketball to where it has never been. Other topics covered: * Why not nearly as many USD fans will become nearly as engaged in Hawkeye football with L.J. Phillips playing in Iowa as SDSU fans who hopped on the train with Mark Gronowski * Griffin Wilde getting a much more experienced and famous offensive coordinator at Northwestern — former Oregon, 49ers, and Eagles head coach Chip Kelly — than his former SDSU OC Zach Lujan * Former SDSU and Washington State offensive coordinator Danny Freund landing not with former SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers at Iowa State, but back at North Dakota, where he was the OC before coming to Brookings in 2024 and Pullman in '25 * The monster basketball showdowns SDSU's men and women have with North Dakota State this week * Why O'Gorman boys basketball coach Derek Robey — who announced Friday that after 40 seasons and six state titles that this season will be his last — is "one of the most underrated coaches in South Dakota history," not just for high school hoops, but all sports at all levels.
6 Jan 2026
Jacks & Yotes football brands, epic FCS final, early Summit hoops & more
HEY! We encourage you to listen to this show as part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, and most podcast platforms like the one you find here! So, if you enjoy the topics Matt & John cover, you'll get those topics, plus relevant local guests, every Monday through Thursday on Happy Hour... so we highly recommend you check that out!
How strong are the brands of both Jackrabbits and Coyotes football heading into the 2026 season?
It was not a topic on the docket of hosts John Gaskins and Matt Zimmer for the first "Nobody's Listening Anyway" podcast of the new year, but that is the beauty of the show — a natural barstool conversation, "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" style, that leads down unplanned roads.
The "brands" of South Dakota's two Div. I football programs were dissected after John and Matt discussed the early transfer portal headlines for SDSU and USD. Nothing much new has popped since the December news that two Jackrabbits who would potentially be big money Power Four transfers (Chase Mason and Quentin Christensen) announced they were staying in Brookings, while two Coyotes decided to leave Vermillion to seek greener pastures (L.J. Phillips and Larenzo Fenner).
The bigger picture is what second year head coaches Dan Jackson and Travis Johansen — who both tackled massive portal losses before their first seasons started — are doing to establish and maintain strong brands that will allow stability and success no matter how brutal portal combat gets year after year.
And what about the rest of the FCS? Did Montana State and Illinois State breaking the nine-season streak of either North Dakota State or SDSU playing for (and winning) the national title mean there is more parity, or should we expect the usual suspects back in 2026?
And how about Monday night's game? It felt like Redbirds lost it more than the Bobcats won, and John and Matt don't hold back on ISU's collapse.
Next, a dive into the early Summit League men's and women's basketball seasons. Speaking of brands and identities, what do nonconference slates and early league battles suggest for things to come in a couple of months once the tournament comes back to Sioux Falls?
Will the SDSU women go unbeaten in league play for a fourth consecutive season since Dawn Plitzuweit left USD? How much stronger of challengers will the Coyotes be? On the men's side, is there any clear favorite? And what do we make of USD's M*A*S*H unit and how that affects the program moving beyond this season?
The show ends back on the gridiron, where both hosts say "I told you so" on the Minnesota Vikings turning down Aaron Rodgers in the offseason. Considering the shaky ability and availability of J.J. McCarthy in his first season, should Kevin O'Connell reach out to Rodgers or another veteran again... or ride it out with the kid and give him time he may need to pop?The answer to both could be yes. Hear why.
Finally, John and Matt try to make sense of Alabama's 38-3 humiliation from Indiana in the Rose Bowl and what legs Kalen DeBoer has to stand on heading into his third year. A history lesson from his early years as head coach at the University of Sioux Falls could lend a hint.
Who has been a guest on Nobody's Listening Anyway
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Dan Jackson
Bob Nielson
Travis Johansen
Jimmy Rogers
Chase Mason
Reach and audience
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
17 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
14 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 30 / 100
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Quality
39
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
51
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