SIOUX FALLS - University of South Dakota Athletic Director Joel Nielsen says USD is talking to several other independent NCAA Division I schools about forming an all-sports conference.

USD becomes an independent Division I transitional school next season.

The Coyotes will play football in the five-school Great West Conference but have yet to find an affiliation for other sports.

The new all-sports conference also would call itself the Great West, although USD and North Dakota would be the only schools that would be in both football and other sports.

"We're definitely interested," Brian Saison, UND's athletic director, said of the potential new conference.

The Great West talks started out as a discussion of scheduling issues, Saison said. "At this point, we're still in the stage of waiting for all the schools to make a determination about what we're going to do," he said.

Saison said he hopes the conference affiliation is secured soon. The UND administration is on board with the idea, he said.

The other three Great West football schools are Southern Utah, a Summit League member for other sports, and Cal Davis and Cal Poly, members of the Big West in other sports.

Among schools mentioned as possible members of the new conference are Texas-Pan American, Seattle University, Chicago State, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley State and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

"There have been a number of independents that get together to talk about scheduling associations," Nielsen said. "We would be taking that to the level of a conference formation and affiliation. It is driven by doing what is best for the student-athletes."

A Great West all-sports conference likely would have six to eight schools, with conference tournaments in some individual sports possibly in place by 2008-09, Nielsen said.

Any new league would be formed with no expectation of automatic bids for postseason play until after 2011. An NCAA moratorium on the formation of new Division I conferences lasts until the summer of 2011.

Still, landing a conference quickly is important for D-I transition schools, to give student-athletes a chance to play for conference titles and individual honors, and for scheduling, Saison said.

"It is so important to be able to meet the Division I scheduling requirements," he said.

Because of the Division I transition, most sports at USD and UND won't be eligible for NCAA postseason participation until 2012-13, anyway. Coyote men's and women's track is eligible beginning in 2009-10.

Great West basketball and other team sports likely would not start until 2009-10.

"Given that we are not eligible for NCAA postseason for four more years, playing for some kind of a conference championship would be good for our student-athletes," Nielsen said. "You would have weekly awards and all-conference teams - the types of things you get when you're in a league."

Asked when UND and D-I North Dakota State might meet again on an athletic field, Saison said, "Hopefully soon," but said he he didn't know when it would happen.

"Right now, we're not playing," Saison said. "Hopefully that will change."