They just can't believe it.  To some — especially college football fans outside of South Dakota and the FCS — it just doesn't make any sense. Why would 6'4, 230 lb., bodybuilder-framed, rocket-armed, runaway freight train fast Chase Mason stay at South Dakota State for his final season of college eligibility when he has already been offered over $1 million to play at least one Power Four school (according to his SDSU head coach)? Beyond the life-changing money, Mason could potentially raise his NFL stock — and there is plenty, according to NFL scouts Mason and Dan Jackson converse — by playing against the highest level of CFB competition in front of 70,000-plus seat stadiums and millions of weekly national TV viewers.  NFL stock aside, just the P4 QB1 experience alone appears intoxicating and once-in-a-lifetime, as one of Mason's former teammates Mark Gronowski made it appear at times at Iowa after leaving SDSU for a reported $1,000,000 to $2,000,000.  Mason made it clear in his 68-minute chat with Happy Hour on Monday — "never in a million years" did he consider transferring, and no prospects of seven figure NIL dough will change his mind and convince him to enter the CFB portal, which will be open Jan. 2-16. The former Viborg-Hurley state champion quarterback, FBS-offered, and University of Nebraska baseball player said NFL scouts have told Jackson that he does not need to play at a higher level in 2026 to raise his stock. But more than anything, Mason cited over and over again during the Monday chat that, to him, nothing compares to the culture and "brotherhood" he experiences at SDSU and he doesn't want to discover the downsides to exploring if the grass is greener beyond the Benjamins at a big-league school. Again, some wonder — there has to be a catch, right? Perhaps he isn't worth mondo money and knows it and he actually doesn't have any higher-level interest. Perhaps anyone who claims he is a legitimate NFL QB prospect is either overblowing that notion or flat-out lying. Listening to Mason's entire Happy Hour chat could clear some confusion, but for good measure, Tuesday's show features the Sioux Falls Live sports reporter who has covered Mason closer than anyone the last seven years back to his high school days. Matt Zimmer helps the Twitter keyboard warriors and fans of other fan bases make sense of all the Mason-is-staying hype from the last 24 hours. In particular, Zim revisits Mason's past and why he transferred from Nebraska to SDSU and changed sports in the first place four years ago. NFL? There's a Jackrabbit track record of the last decade that's beyond decent. There's a comparison between Gronowski and Mason regarding their NFL stock that Zim finds worth noting. And now that Mason is coming back, should we project SDSU to take a leap back to the status of the FCS elite after a 9-5 season that ended in the second round? What kind of talent can we assume is coming back to surround Mason to make a national championship run in 2026? (After all, the portal window isn't open until Jan. 2-16, so nobody really knows which 2025 Jacks besides Mason are going to stay). Zim lays out his current outlook and explains why Jackson is looking more to the Div. II and NAIA ranks than the FBS for transfers to fill positions of need. Speaking of South Dakotans announcing they are staying in their powerhouse programs, Zim dives into Kalen DeBoer's remaining the coach at Alabama despite being a floated name in the media as a candidate at Michigan and Penn State. Why is Alabama — as hot as the seat appears to be sometimes — a better gig for DeBoer than the jobs in Ann Arbor and Happy Valley? Then, some words about the 7-6 start for SDSU men's hoops, which included Monday's 87-72 loss to Wyoming. Does this feel like a "down" year without a clear Summit League star like Oscar Cluff, Zeke Mayo, Baylor Scheierman, David Jenkins, or Mike Daum?  

This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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!

Is it time for the Coyotes to take a seat at the FCS "grownup" table? In other words, to make room to expand the "Big Four" of FCS football — North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana State, Montana — to the "Big Five?"

USD has made three consecutive quarterfinals, something NDSU and SDSU — who have split the last four national titles, two apiece — can't say after losing in the round of 16 on Saturday (but the Bobcats and the Grizzlies can).

Unlike the Big Four, the Coyotes haven't played in an FCS national title game within the last four years, or ever. We'll find out how they stack up against a blue blood Saturday on ABC in a time window when Army-Navy will be the only other football game to watch on over-the-air TV.

But Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer and Happy Hour host John Gaskins dig in to what three years of USD reaching this round means, particularly for a 2025 team that has won five consecutive games — four against ranked teams — and left a 47-0 bruise on SoCon champ Mercer, the nation's best (statistical) offense and rush defense, by holding the Bears to 277 total yards (227 short of their average) and bulldozing them for 316 rushing yards (226 over their average).

So, will the Coyotes stack up to the Grizzlies better than the Jackrabbits, who were 50-burgered? Zim and John kick that around as well in this week's edition of their five-years-and-running weekly podcast "Nobody's Listening Anyway."

Also on the docket:

* Why is Zim happy for Jimmy Rogers at Iowa State, and why does he find it nonsense to bash his character for leaving Washington State after less than a year to take his third head coaching job in four years? And why, in hindsight, was he still the best choice to take over for John Stiegelmeier?

* Why does Zim feel Chase Mason doesn't need to go to the Big Ten or SEC or any FBS school to show NFL pros he is worthy of an early rounds NFL Draft selection?

* What is Zim's sense of how many SDSU players who aren't out of eligibility will stick around?

* Does NDSU's early round exit from the FCS Playoffs make the postseason more interesting or more boring? Does it make the FCS stronger? Does it strengthen or weaken the case that the Bison should want to stay in the FCS?

* Oh, and should James Madison's entry into the CFB Playoffs make the case for NDSU and SDSU to "move up?" Actually, Zim says no. Why?

* Bowl games — yeah, their prestige has been weakened over the decades by the sheer volume of them, the number of top players sitting them out, and now the number of teams refusing to play in them. Does that mean they should all go away? Zim says no. 

Hear why.

This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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 is the silver bullet?

This is a question outside observers may ask when teams like the Jackrabbits and the Coyotes produce a late-season turnaround. Both have gone from funks — the Jacks' four-game slide after a 7-0 start and more the Yotes' haven't-figured-it-out-yet malaise at 5-4 — to heaters that make them look like dangerous playoff teams.

 In South Dakota State's case, the return of quarterback Chase Mason is an easy answer, given how flawless, electric, and inspired the Jacks looked in their 41-3 first round playoff win over New Hampshire. But SDSU had already turned the corner the week before in the dramatic win at North Dakota. So, what is the other silver bullet at SDSU?

Hint: It lies in both the head coach and offensive coordinator. In Wednesday's "John-o-logue," Happy Hour John Gaskins plucked insight from Dan Jackson and others (like John Stiegelmeier) to pinpoint the turning points.At USD, there isn't one player or aspect that sticks out as a cure-all in their four-game win streak, which included three consecutive wins over Top 25 teams just to reach the playoffs.

But there was a broad, overarching concept employed by head coach Travis Johansen that yielded powerful results. It wasn't an obvious or dramatic silver bullet, but Johansen reveals it in his weekly one-on-one 30 minute chat with Gaskins. 

After a close first half against Drake, the Yotes pulled away 38-17 in the first round of the playoffs as quarterback Aidan Bouman had his best game of the season.

Was there a big turnaround moment for Bouman? How has Larenzo Fenner broken out into an at-times impossible-to-cover receiver? How did Mikey Munn become an All-MVFC first teammer? Johansen answers these questions and gives a glimpse into why Mercer has the nation's second-best passing yardage attack, and what kind of challenges the Bears defense will present to USD's now-humming offense.

Meanwhile, Wednesday marked (Early) National Letter of Intent Signing Day for high school athletes all across the country. It is always a day for college football teams to pump up their incoming recruiting class.

Gaskins chatted with two Sioux Falls standouts about their paths to CFB — Sioux Falls Washington receiver Jhace Woods (South Dakota State) and Sioux Falls Jefferson tight end Eddie Whiting (Michigan State).

How did the schools they signed with first start a relationship? What led them to choosing their school, and which other schools tried to pluck them away?In both players' cases, the schools they chose went through coaching changes — Woods earlier in his process when Jacks coach Jimmy Rogers left for Washington State, and Whiting just days before signing day when MSU fired Jonathan Smith and within 24 hours hired Pat Fitzgerald.

So, what kept the Sioux Falls ballers loyal to their original choice?  

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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! Just how big of a win was South Dakota State's 34-31 thriller at North Dakota? Ask the reporter who has been on the Jackrabbit beat for 10 years and gets far more access than most college football beat reporters, and he'll tell you it changed the tenor of the entire 2025 season. Ask him if it may have changed the tenor of where the program is headed after the first full season of a new head coach and entirely new staff, and, well, you'll want to hear the answer. 

Sioux Falls Live's Matt Zimmer was in Grand Forks and gives you even more insight into the relevance of the victory than he does in his articles. It can't be underestimated. But, how much does it evaporate all the issues that led to SDSU losing four games in a row, particularly the embarrassment against Indiana State and the swift, early 35-0 tailspin against Illinois State? How did that latter loss actually fuel Saturday's win? 

Can we now definitively say the Jacks can beat New Hampshire or even No. 3 Montana — which awaits the winner — without Chase Mason? We might not ever know the answer to that question, because head coach Dan Jackson on Monday told Happy Host John Gaskins he is "confident" in Mason being able to play in Saturday's home playoff game. 

So how does this change things for SDSU's postseason, if Mason indeed plays?  And, what do we make of others who cover the FCS accusing Jackson — we're paraphrasing here — of trying to use Jedi mind tricks and keep opponents guessing if Mason will play or not each of the last few weeks? On his daily "Hot Mic" show in Fargo, WDAY-TV's Voice of the Bison Dom Izzo said this on Monday: 

"The Chase Mason thing is beyond infuriating. And, I said it after the Bison game. FCS writer/analyst) Craig Haley and got ripped for it — and Craig was dead-on about it — it's just completely unnecessary. They warmed up Chase Mason again just for this illusion for the (FCS Playoffs) Committee that, 'Hey, he might be coming back.' He's not! 
"Jack Henry played and won the game. I think it was out there, like, 'Hey, if we lose, we might get our quarterback back. It's just so stupid unnecessary." 

You'll want to hear what Zimmer, who regularly goes to practice and was on the field observing Saturday's warmup, has to say about that assertion. SDSU also scored what appears to be a major recruiting victory on Friday night when Sioux Falls Lincoln quarterback Brody Schafer announced on social media his commitment to SDSU. 

Schafer is on pace to easily break older brother Tate Schafer's career passing and total yards and touchdowns in Class 11AAA, the state's highest level of high school football. Sanford Sports Academy's football director and veteran high school football analyst Kurtiss Riggs has called Schafer the best high school football quarterback talent to come from South Dakota. 

Riggs also feels like USD missed a golden opportunity to offer Schafer a scholarship before SDSU. Does Zimmer agree? 

Also in this episode, our latest conversation about a watered-down FCS playoff field thanks to the numerous departures from the subdivision to FBS the last several years. Does it make watching these playoffs so uninteresting that Zimmer pines for the Jacks to move up to the FBS the way many Bison fans and media do?  

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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! It was brutal. It was comical. It was full of "third grade mistakes" and looked like a football team "disinterested in playing competent football.There aren't big enough words to describe South Dakota State falling behind 35-0 at home and eventually suffering a fourth consecutive loss after starting the season 7-0.

Matt Zimmer tried in his game column on Saturday. With three days to process the debacle — which was followed by an inspired, dizzying 21-point SDSU comeback to lose 35-21 to Illinois State — Zim has even more words and searches for reasons for all the mistakes that had Jackrabbits made.Was it a lack of confidence?

A lack of experience in facing this kind of a slump and adversity? How about coaching and play-calling?No matter what it was, it led to a chorus of "boos" from the crowd in Brookings. Was such howling warranted? Should it be in college athletics?

Zim tackles all this, plus the latest Chase Mason Magical Mystery Tour that heads to Grand Forks for the regular season finale and what appears to be a "do or die" and "win and you're in" showdown with North Dakota. What is Zim's sense of Mason's availability and playability based on what Dan Jackson is saying — including here on Happy Hour — and how much difference Mason playing would make in the Jacks' chances of beating the Fighting Hawks.  If Mason plays, and plays decent, and the Jacks lose, do they still deserve a playoff spot?

Other saucy topics — SDSU's offer to Brody Schafer, his older brother Tate's FCS marketability after lighting things up at USF, the screwiness of the polls, Zim and John's unworn Jackrabbit and Coyote apparel, Outkast, The Replacements, New Kids on the Block, and Larry Bird's trash talking before NBA All-Star 3-point shooting contests.Oh, and how about those USD Coyotes?

Yes, Zim has plenty of thoughts on the three-game winning streak, all against Top 25 teams, to finish the season and assure a playoff spot.The Yotes deserve plenty of time. The Jacks, though — with their playoff uncertainty, wild recent tailspin, and the storylines of the game they are playing Saturday while USD is off — take up most of the hour.

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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 is there to say that hasn't already been said about South Dakota's 24-17 win over South Dakota State on Saturday, or already been written in columns like this one by Matt Zimmer or this one by John Gaskins?

As it turns out, of course, plenty.
In their weekly "Nobody's Listening Anyway" podcast from Gibs Sports Bar in Sioux Falls, Zim and John sink their teeth into the following aftermatch topics:

* Are both teams now playoff-worthy at seven wins apiece, no matter what happens in the No. 17 Coyotes' final game at No. 21 Southern Illinois on Saturday, or the No. 16 Jackrabbits' two games remaining against No. 14 Illinois State and at No. 13 North Dakota?

* Why does Zim feel USD has what it takes to go on a run and contend for the national championship?

* For that matter, what can SDSU's ceiling still be, with or without Chase Mason?

* Would SDSU have won the game if Chase Mason had played?

* How can the Jacks win either or both of their last two games if Chase Mason doesn't return?

* How do we look at NDSU and UND after the Fighting Sioux almost took down the Bison?

* Should Jacks fans be upset about the coaching this year, particularly the last three games?

* How do we now look at the final season of Aidan Bouman and his USD legacy no matter what?

* How do we see the Missouri Valley Football Conference's quality now that we've seen several Top 25 teams play each other close?

* Is NDSU still head-and-shoulders above the rest of the Valley, if not the entire FCS?

Then, some words about Augustana and University of Sioux Falls suffering blowout home losses in the snow. How much do those losses hurt the Div. II Sioux Falls teams' postseason picture?

Next, a review of the wins for No. 1 Brandon Valley and No. 2 Lincoln in the Class 11AAA state semifinals, setting up a rematch of last year's championship game, where the Patriots repeated as champions.

Will it be a Lincoln three-peat? 

Mark Gronowski continued to rip off monster runs and even had a couple clutch passes in Iowa's 18-16 loss to Oregon. Is Tim Tebow (Light) a fair comparison for what the former Jackrabbit has brought to Iowa City? 

Even further, have the Hawkeyes wasted Gronowski's arm and throwing ability by becoming so run-heavy? 

Finally, an examination of the wild pendulum swings of J.J. McCarthy. After a dagger-throwing, season-saving win in Detroit, the Vikings quarterback regressed to rookie mode in Sunday's loss to Baltimore, but how much was he really to blame? How much slack should we cut him and how much time should we give him?

And we dare bring it up — can we now say things would have gone better if Minnesota signed Aaron Rodgers? 

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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 better than shooting the bull over beers for an hour about the state of both Jackrabbit and Coyote football and the big "State vs U" Top 25 high stakes showdown on Saturday in the DakotaDome? 

How about shooting the bull while guzzling cans of the official in-state brewed beers of both universities?  The hosts of the weekly "Nobody's Listening Anyway" sure enjoyed the procedure.

Happy Hour host John Gaskins and Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer cracked open the "Ears Up" SDSU beer from Sioux Falls' Ferson Brewing and the "Coyote Legacy" blonde ale from Vermillion's XIX Brewing.  It made for sublime liquid encouragement to bring out fluid and unfiltered observations of the Jacks' wretched 24-12 loss to lowly Indiana State and the Yotes' impressive, momentum-swinging, narrative-changing 26-21 mild upset of then-No. 8 North Dakota. 

As mentioned in Monday's show, all of a sudden this matchup between No. 8 SDSU and No. 22 USD seems different and a lot spicier given the changed and opposite recent trajectories of the teams.  Zim, the Jacks beat writer, pulls no punches in his analysis of how ugly and inexcusable SDSU's loss was.

Meanwhile, can we definitively say the Yotes have figured out their winning formula?  Can USD beat the Jacks simply by running well, completing just a couple big downfield passes, and scoring with both defense and special teams? How can SDSU solve its offensive problems against a thriving defense that shut down one of the nation's best FCS offenses and quarterbacks?  

Will Chase Mason play? If he does, will that make the difference between winning and losing? Who is the favorite? What percentage of the DakotaDome will be in blue? How far might this game go in determining these two teams' playoff fates? 

Oh, and which school has the better beer? Belly up with your own brew and take a listen. Along the way, you'll also hear about Augustana and USF's heaters with backup freshmen quarterbacks. Plus, a crystal ball look at the high school football state semifinals in Class 11AAA — Jefferson vs. Lincoln and Harrisburg vs. Brandon Valley. You can watch both games on TV or any device with the Midwest Sports+ app. 

Cheers!

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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!

You can see it in the changing color of the leaves, and then how quickly they are falling off the trees.  You can feel it in the chill of the air in the mornings, evenings, and sometimes all day. As November — which for those of us up here in the north means early winter — nears, the weather and ever-shedding trees represent the cold, harsh reality of winter drawing near, and the cold, harsh reality of some football teams' goals slipping away. South Dakota State no longer looks like a national title contender, at least in the health they are in. North Dakota State exposed that.  South Dakota not only no longer looks like a national title contender they were projected to be by most FCS experts in the preseason, the Coyotes look less and less like even an FCS playoffs team. Their failure to score more than 20 points in all but three of nine games exposed that. But that's how things look now. Both the Jackrabbits and Coytes have November to change those narratives — four regulasr seaosn games each to flip the script. The margin of error is slimmer for both. The depth of both teams is thinning, too (as injuries tend to smother all teams at all levels by this time of year). On a cold day requiring flannel for John Gaskins and a hooded sweatshirt for Matt Zimmer, the two "Nobody's Listening Anyway" hosts require just a tiny extra dose of alcoholic nourishment to adjust to the temperatures and impending winter, not to mention to digest and unpack both what the SDSU and USD seasons have become and still could be. The cold, harsh reality of the Jacks is the kind of players that led them to national titles in 2022 and '23 — Mark Gronowski, Tucker Kraft, Isaiah Davis, Pierre Strong, the Janke twins, and a host of pro-level 605 Hogs and defenders — are not walking through that door, and the injuries of Chase Mason, Lofton O'Groske and Chase Van Tol made winning an MVFC of national title even harder.
But, does that mean the Jacks' chances of accomplishing something special with a brand new coaching staff and mostly-turned-over roster are toast?  The cold, harsh reality of the Yotes is they struggle to score points, which makes it hard to win games against teams that aren't the worst in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Presumably, USD must beat three consecutive top-tier league teams to reach the playoffs. But does that mean we can stick a fork in the chances of a third consecutive postseason berth in Vermillion? Fire up the Budweiser and add a shot of Rumple Minze. There's a lot of brutal reality football to talk about, and that includes the latest bumpy ride Kalen DeBoer's Alabama took in the SEC, the make-you-hurl Brian Kelly experience at LSU that is mercifully over, and the broader conversation of all these major college teams sending their head coaches packing — with suitcases full of dozens of millions of dollars in buyout money — before the leaves start falling. Zim and John cover all that, plus the surest sign that autumn is ending: The World Series, state football playoffs, and Halloween. Is Shohei Ohtani already the greatest baseball player of all time? Are Brandon Valley and Lincoln on a collision course for back-to-back meetings in the Dakota Dome in Mid-November?  Should an almost 50-year-old man still be dressing up for Halloween? You'll hear the answers, but spoiler alert — like the local college football discussions, it's complicated.

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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!

NOTICE: This weekly show is now part of the "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" daily podcast, which you can find at SiouxFallsLive.com, MidwestSportsPlus.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!

Forgive us for not taking it "one game at a time" like coaches always preach.

Even in today's modern college football world of just about anything unimaginable happening — Indiana vaulting to a No. 3 ranking two years after being dog meat, Jimmy Rogers and his 33-point underdog "Washington State Jackrabbits" almost beating No. 4 Ole Miss — many football fans in the Dakotas are already looking ahead to next week.

While No. 1 North Dakota State and No. 2 South Dakota State hunker down for road games at perennial MVFC doormats Indiana State and Murray State on Saturday, "Nobody's Listening Anyway" hosts John Gaskins and Matt Zimmer dare compare the FCS big dogs' resumes and opine on how ready the seemingly vunerable Jacks are for the seemingly teflon Bison.

Specifically, is the "bust" part of the boom-or-bust SDSU offense concerning if not alarming? Will the return of top wideout Lofton O'Groske erase those concerns?

At the top of many fans' minds is the potential return of ESPN's College Gameday to Brookings for the Dakota Marker Game? Is the breathless lunging at the Mother Ship on social media worth it? Well, yeah, considering the vivid and fun memories that Zim shares of the crew's broadcast the morning of this matchup in 2019.  

This leads into a discussion about the merits and misery of watching Pat McAfee, or of being co-host A.J. Hawk on McAfee's daily show.

After that sidetrack, a discussion about the emergence of freshman quarterbacks at both Augustana and USF — Rich Lucero, Jr., and Tate Schafer. Then, about USD and its ugly but effective 19-14 win at Indiana State and if the Coyotes' clear establishment of their identity is serving them well enough to for monster final month of showdowns against Top 25 Valley teams.

Finally, what does Zim make of the Matt Rhule era at Nebraska now that the end may be near, with speculation he's a top candidate for the Penn State opening and the former PSU linebacker expressing unabashed love for both institutions upon being asked about the position on Monday.