Nolan Schmidt is entering his fourth athletic year as MSUM's Assistant Athletic Director for Media and Public Relations in 2025-26.
He is the primary media contact for all Dragon athletic programs while also overseeing all publicity for MSUM's sports. Schmidt is also tasked with content creation for
msumdragons.com, internal and external communications, social media and statistics management and archival record keeping. He also assists with MSUM's award-winning GO! TEAM in content creation, ideation, delegation and execution. Schmidt is the department's lead on balloting, selection and induction for the Dragon Athletic Hall of Fame as well.
Schmidt is active in College Sports Communicators (CSC) membership as 116 Dragons have been named to the group's Academic All-District Team® in his tenure. He has nominated four MSUM student-athletes for Academic All-America® honors through College Sports Communicators with all four being voted to the prestigious team via a national balloting process. Men's basketball's
Jacob Beeninga, football's
Josiah Behm and track & field's
Braxton Bruer were all multi-time members of the Academic All-America® team with Behm being a three-time honoree. Football's
Jack Strand earned his first Academic All-America® nod in 2024 as well. Schmidt has also put up Strand for the Harlon Hill Award the past two seasons (2023/2024) with Stand being named a nominee both years. Strand is the first player in Dragon football history to be nominated and included in Harlon Hill voting.
In his tenure, Schmidt has nominated several student-athletes for D2CCA All-Region honors across various sports. Following nomination, the nation's sports information personnel vote on which student-athletes make the prestigious all-region teams. The 2023-24 season saw football's Behm,
Gage Florence and
Jake Bettcher named to D2CCA's All-Super Region 4 Team. In 2024-25, men's basketball true freshman
Carson Johnson was named a D2CCA All-Region performer as well.
Following the 2024-25 athletic year, Schmidt was honored with the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference's (NSIC) 'Golden Buddha' award, given annually to the league's top College Sports Communicator. Schmidt was also voted as the conference's CSC Committee Chair and will serve in that role throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 athletic years. He also serves on
CSC's Inclusion Committee.
During the 2023-24 athletic year, Schmidt was a fellow and graduate of CSC Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship. He was one of 20 members who studied issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion in athletics communications and within college athletics overall during the 2023-24 academic year. The coursework and experience helped Schmidt and GO! TEAM produce its National Girls & Women's In Sports Day '#PlayForHer' campaign, which won a
CSC ChangeMaker Innovation Award in June 2024. Schmidt was also awarded a CSC Fred Stabley Writing Contest honor for his story,
Ashley's Fight, in 2023-24.
Prior to MSUM, Schmidt was hired as an editor at Spotlight in 2018. In that role, he served as the primary writer and editor for two of Spotlight's publications, most notably
Bison Illustrated. This position allowed Schmidt to work extensively and closely with all of North Dakota State's athletic programs including student-athletes, coaches and administration. In 2020, Schmidt was promoted to editorial director, overseeing all of the company's publications and editorial processes. In that time, he still continued to be the sole editor of
Bison Illustrated.
In that role, Schmidt was able to travel and cover such events as the NCAA Division I FCS national football championship in Frisco, Texas, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in Dayton, Ohio, and Columbia, S.C., the NCAA Division I Softball Regionals and the Big 12 Wrestling Championships in Tulsa, Okla. Schmidt also covered numerous Summit League Championship tournaments and regular season events for the publication. He was also instrumental in the publication's successful weekly podcast, which reached fans across the country. His work with social media, primarily through Twitter, grew the publication's readership and following exponentially.
Before his work in print media, Schmidt worked in radio production for both WDAY (formerly AM 970) and AM 1100 in Fargo. While at WDAY, he produced radio programs and created promotional material for the station's lone sports show. He worked closely with on-air sports personalities for both radio programming and live sporting events.
The Bismarck, N.D., native is a proud Dragon. Schmidt graduated from MSUM with a degree in English and Mass Communications in 2017. Schmidt and his wife, Erin, live in Moorhead.
