I get why you’d snicker at the idea of South Dakota State being a power house. But to be fair I qualified that comment by saying FCS powerhouse. To most FBS fans FCS is North Dakota State or maybe James Madison. But there are several schools that are just below them, and one of those schools is South Dakota State.
SDSU is in the Missouri Valley FB Conference, which is the SEC of FCS. South Dakota State is overshadowed by North Dakota State in the same way a number of powerhouse schools in the SEC are eclipsed by Alabama. if you followed FCS football you’d know there are typically as many top 10 or top 25 schools from the MV in the FCS rankings as there are SEC schools in the FBS rankings.
SDSU has been to the FCS playoffs each year since 2012, making it to the semifinals twice and knocking off a P5 school (Kansas) during this time. So I thought FCS powerhouse was appropriate. It I might not use that term if I had a do over post,