Happy Hour with John Gaskins

At first, a small town the size of Brookings is not what a Minnesota "Mr. Football" finalist from just outside of Minneapolis had in mind for college football.
Then Jake Wieneke met South Dakota State coach John Stiegelmeier on his recruiting visit in January 2013, and everything changed on a dime.
All Wieneke's decision to become a Jackrabbit led to was catching more dimes for more yards and more touchdowns than anyone in the history of the program and the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The 6'4 speedy wideout burst out of the gates and finished runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award (top freshman in the FCS), then teammed with quarterbacks Zach Lujan and Taryn Christion and offensive coordinator Eric Eidsness to re-write SDSU record books and elevate the Jacks from a Top 20 program to a Top 10 juggernaut, a stretch that included SDSU's first MVFC title in 2016 when Wieneke was a junior.
Now a missionary for athletes at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Wieneke looks back a career that helped transform SDSU into the powerhouse it is today and shares stories about those prolific quarterbacks and future NFL teammates like Zach Zenner and Dallas Goedert.
His stories are vivid, real, and raw: The Jacks' landmark win at North Dakota State in 2016 — including his game-winning touchdown catch on the second-to-last play of the game — to his career ending in a nightmare loss at James Madison in the FCS semifinals (after which he had perform a random NCAA drug test that dragged out a while), to the moment he decided to retire from football after a few years in the Canadian Football League.
The hour-plus conversation starts with the good-natured Wieneke catching us up on how he got started in his current profession and ended up in Lincoln. The chat ends with how he applies all his athletic experiences to the athletes he now mentors.
Before all that, Happy Hour host John Gaskins provides a John-o-logue...
There's a classic Seinfeld episode (Season 8, Episode 22) where, after the New York Yankees fired him but offered a three-month severance package, George Costanza relishes having an entire summer off and proclaims, "The Summer of George!"
All Wieneke's decision to become a Jackrabbit led to was catching more dimes for more yards and more touchdowns than anyone in the history of the program and the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The 6'4 speedy wideout burst out of the gates and finished runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award (top freshman in the FCS), then teammed with quarterbacks Zach Lujan and Taryn Christion and offensive coordinator Eric Eidsness to re-write SDSU record books and elevate the Jacks from a Top 20 program to a Top 10 juggernaut, a stretch that included SDSU's first MVFC title in 2016 when Wieneke was a junior.
Now a missionary for athletes at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Wieneke looks back a career that helped transform SDSU into the powerhouse it is today and shares stories about those prolific quarterbacks and future NFL teammates like Zach Zenner and Dallas Goedert.
His stories are vivid, real, and raw: The Jacks' landmark win at North Dakota State in 2016 — including his game-winning touchdown catch on the second-to-last play of the game — to his career ending in a nightmare loss at James Madison in the FCS semifinals (after which he had perform a random NCAA drug test that dragged out a while), to the moment he decided to retire from football after a few years in the Canadian Football League.
The hour-plus conversation starts with the good-natured Wieneke catching us up on how he got started in his current profession and ended up in Lincoln. The chat ends with how he applies all his athletic experiences to the athletes he now mentors.

No, things are not entering the "sleepy summer" phase in our South Dakota sports scene. 
These days, there really isn't one. The Stampede are playing for the Clark Cup (USHL title). USD softball and both Augustana softball and baseball won league tournaments last weekend and are dancing in the NCAA Tournament this week.
The Sioux Falls Canaries open their 2026 "run it back to the championship series" campaign in Lincoln this weekend and start their home slate with a week-long homestand at The Birdcage on Monday.
And in the exciting yet turbulent — and uncertain, to put it lightly — world of modern college football, FCS football is becoming a year-round conversation.
The foremost full-time FCS national analyst Sam Herder of HERO Sports joined "Hot Mic with Dom Izzo" in Fargo this week with news and views about FCS schedules as teams look for new ways to beef up their playoff resumes.
That chat is part of this week's "South Dakota Sports Lounge," a weekly show that features the most compelling stories from three daily shows in our region that focus on sports stories affecting South Dakotans.
Also featured this week:
Happy Hour with John Gaskins — South Dakota Coyotes softball coach Robert Wagner on his program's first NSIC tournament title and trip to the NCAA Tournament and how his program has steadily grown over his decade at the helm.
The Nate Brown Show (Rapid City) — Minnesota Vikings writer and podcaster Thor Nystrom (SKOR North) on that club's Draft, their salary cap situation and the overall state of the roster.
Feature story on Augustana baseball & softball NSIC titles from Midwest Sports Plus reporter Zach Borg. Both Vikings had dramatic championship games, but one title was more surprising than the other.
These shows, and Zach Borg's features on local teams and athletes, can all be seen on your television set via the Midwest Sports Plus app. To subscribe and download the app, go here.

Fool's gold for mid-major teams?
 
That is certainly how some college basketball fans and experts see the recently-announced NCAA Tournament expansion to 76 teams in both men's and women's basketball. 
 
While the four new "play-in games" potentially offer a second school from a mid-major conference like the Summit League to take part in "The Big Dance," some view those games as battles for the right to be bludgeoned by a No. 1 or No. 2 seed about 48 hours or less later is the round of 64.
 
It's hard to argue, considering the recent history of mid-major teams like those from the Summit since 2021, when Oral Roberts reached the Sweet 16. Since then, the enforcement of NIL (paying players without a cap) has caused most of the best mid-major players to leave for more lucrative situations at larger schools, resulting in a competitive imbalance that has led to more "chalk" in "Power Five" versus mid-major matchups in the tourney.

Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton didn't dispute that when he joined The Nate Brown Show in Rapid City on Wednesday.
 
But Fenton disputed the notion that expansion won't boost leagues like his. For one, any NCAA Tournament win would mean more money for all Summit League schools. 

Given the format of the expanded "play-in" round, a Summit League team seeded 15th or 16th would play a team with the same seed. Hence, this is a far more winnable game than the matchup against a No. 1 or No. 2 seed that many Summit champions have faced in recent years. A win in that "play-in" round would still mean facing a top-two seed in the round of 64, but the financial windfall counts the same for each win.
 
"The tournament has become, especially for (mid-majors) very challenging in the opening round," Fenton said. "If you have a chance, now, in more of a 50/50 game in the (play-in) round, certainly, to win a unit for the conference. That's a pretty signficant opportunity for the conference. That would go a long way for the conference and the member institutions that are certainly in need of some financial resources."
 
In 2026, each conference received $2,000,000 for every game a member institution won in the NCAA Tournament, with payments spread out over six years. That's about $350,000 per year for the league, which is then dispersed to each school. For every NCAA women's tourney win, the winning team's conference received over $1,000,000, which equates to over $190,000 payments to the conference for six years. 
 
North Dakota State's women were officially one of the "first four out" teams that barely missed the NCAA Tourney field in March. They would have played in March Madness in the new field of 76.
 
So, this is real gold financially. But in terms of elevating mid-major teams' stature in the billion-dollar event? Perhaps fools gold.

How do the Happy Hour host and Sioux Falls Live sportswriter Trent Singer see it? It's the A-topic of the latest "Thirsty Thursday" from the Orion Pub in downtown Minneapolis over cold, refreshing domestic light beer.
 
The rest of the show includes conversation about the Sioux Falls Stampede's first appearance in the Clark Cup Finals in seven years — when The Herd won its third USHL title — and the excitement a title hunt ignites in both the PREMIER Center and around town.
 
The Sioux Falls Canaries certainly experienced a buzz bump during their title chase last September. 
The last time the Birds were on The Birdcage field, they were on the precipice of the squad's first American Association title in 17 years in front of a nearly-full, entirely-standing home crowd howling in ecstacy.
But the Lake Country Dockhounds ripped the trophy away and broke Birdcage hearts — two nights in a row. 
Now what?

The Birds open their season with a three-game series in Lincoln starting on Friday. Their home opener is set for Monday. 
Tenth-year manager Mike Meyer is back and so is the Canaries' all-time most prolific (and arguably most popular) player Jabari Henry, along with fellow veteran cornerstones Mike Hart, former USF slugger Josh Rehwaldt, infielder Trevor Auchenbach, and all-time most prolific relief pitcher Charlie Hasty.
There's also fresh faces and a new pitcher who made his mark locally at Brandon Valley and Northwestern College (Iowa).
Meyer sits down with the Happy Hour host for a deep dive into the aftermath of last year's heartbreak, his decade as manager during which Sioux Falls has gone from the black sheep to a desired destination in its league, why he came back, and how the Birds can contend to run it back and finish the deal in 2026.

Fool's gold for mid-major teams?
 
That is certainly how some college basketball fans and experts see the recently-announced NCAA Tournament expansion to 76 teams in both men's and women's basketball. 
 
While the four new "play-in games" potentially offer a second school from a mid-major conference like the Summit League to take part in "The Big Dance," some view those games as battles for the right to be bludgeoned by a No. 1 or No. 2 seed about 48 hours or less later is the round of 64.
 
It's hard to argue, considering the recent history of mid-major teams like those from the Summit since 2021, when Oral Roberts reached the Sweet 16. Since then, the enforcement of NIL (paying players without a cap) has caused most of the best mid-major players to leave for more lucrative situations at larger schools, resulting in a competitive imbalance that has led to more "chalk" in "Power Five" versus mid-major matchups in the tourney.

Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton didn't dispute that when he joined The Nate Brown Show in Rapid City on Wednesday.
 
But Fenton disputed the notion that expansion won't boost leagues like his. For one, any NCAA Tournament win would mean more money for all Summit League schools. 

Given the format of the expanded "play-in" round, a Summit League team seeded 15th or 16th would play a team with the same seed. Hence, this is a far more winnable game than the matchup against a No. 1 or No. 2 seed that many Summit champions have faced in recent years. A win in that "play-in" round would still mean facing a top-two seed in the round of 64, but the financial windfall counts the same for each win.
 
"The tournament has become, especially for (mid-majors) very challenging in the opening round," Fenton said. "If you have a chance, now, in more of a 50/50 game in the (play-in) round, certainly, to win a unit for the conference. That's a pretty signficant opportunity for the conference. That would go a long way for the conference and the member institutions that are certainly in need of some financial resources."
 
In 2026, each conference received $2,000,000 for every game a member institution won in the NCAA Tournament, with payments spread out over six years. That's about $350,000 per year for the league, which is then dispersed to each school. For every NCAA women's tourney win, the winning team's conference received over $1,000,000, which equates to over $190,000 payments to the conference for six years. 
 
North Dakota State's women were officially one of the "first four out" teams that barely missed the NCAA Tourney field in March. They would have played in March Madness in the new field of 76.
 
So, this is real gold financially. But in terms of elevating mid-major teams' stature in the billion-dollar event? Perhaps fools gold.

How do the Happy Hour host and Sioux Falls Live sportswriter Trent Singer see it? It's the A-topic of the latest "Thirsty Thursday" from the Orion Pub in downtown Minneapolis over cold, refreshing domestic light beer.
 
The rest of the show includes conversation about the Sioux Falls Stampede's first appearance in the Clark Cup Finals in seven years — when The Herd won its third USHL title — and the excitement a title hunt ignites in both the PREMIER Center and around town.

The last time the Sioux Falls Canaries were on The Birdcage field, they had a nearly-full stadium rocking on the precipice of the squad's first American Association title in 17 years. 
But the Lake Country Dockhounds ripped the trophy away and broke Birdcage hearts — two nights in a row. 
Now what? Manager Mike Meyer is back and so is the Canaries' all-time most prolific (and likely most popular) player Jabari Henry, along with fellow veteran cornerstones Mike Hart, (former USF slugger) Josh Rehwaldt, Trevor Auchenbach, and all-time most prolific relief pitcher Charlie Hasty.
There's also fresh faces and a new pitcher who made his mark locally at Brandon Valley and Northwestern College (Iowa).
Meyer sits down with Happy Hour host John Gaskins for a deep dive into the aftermath of last year's heartbreak, why he came back, and why the Birds will be a contender to run it back and finish the deal in 2026.