Nebraska Football: North Dakota State is interested in playing the Huskers

Nebraska football might go against the Big Ten’s wishes and play football this year. If they do, they have a potential opponent willing to play them.

Nebraska football has made headlines this week and not for a good reason.

It all started earlier this week when Huskers head coach Scott Frost said in a press conference that he and the program would be willing to look at outside options should the Big Ten opt not to play in 2020.

Once the conference did indeed announce that fall sports would be postponed to the spring (which seems unlikely), Frost didn’t back down from his stance. The president of Nebraska supported his sentiments and thus began the war between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Big Ten Conference.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren made it clear that if the Huskers play a football season outside of the conference this year, then they will no longer be members of the Big Ten.

That hasn’t stopped Scott Frost and Nebraska football from continuing to look for other options.

If Nebraska does indeed decide to tick off the Big Ten by playing outside of the conference, they have a suitor waiting to play them – the North Dakota State Bison.

Per Jeff Kolpack of InForum, the Bison are shooting their shot with the Huskers in the hopes that they’ll get the okay to play a game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

"NDSU’s Missouri Valley Football Conference moved its league games to the spring, but left open the possibility of conference members to play nonconference games. The Bison remain in fall camp mode and have practiced every day since the Valley’s announcement."

If this does indeed happen, the Bison would be able to give the Huskers a run for their money (literally), as they’ve won four straight National Championships in the FBS. This is their first year in the Missouri Valley Conference and the conference has moved fall sports to the spring (much like the Big Ten).

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. If they decide they want to play football this fall, then it’s very possible they’ll no longer be members of the Big Ten, a conference where they’ve never really fit in to begin with.

The only sport that has really benefitted from the move to the Big Ten is volleyball, which has won two National Championships in the past five years. Football, however, has done very little since departing from the Big 12.

If enough teams speak up and express interest in playing Nebraska, will that be enough for them to play this season? Would they even be able to beat North Dakota State?

I know this seems harsh, but Nebraska couldn’t even beat Northern Illinois and Troy in the past few years. They’re not invincible against non-conference opponents. Not to mention NDSU defeated Iowa a few years ago and could easily do so to a struggling Husker program.

This could be an interesting storyline and I’ll be curious to see how this one develops.