North Dakota State is the talk of the college football world after beating No. 13 Iowa 23-21 Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium, but NDSU and coach Chris Klieman in some ways are becoming a “victim of (their) success,” according to ESPN’s David Lloyd. Iowa is the fifth Power Five conference team NDSU has beaten since ’10, and Klieman said it is “becoming harder” to schedule schools on that level. He acknowledged it is “difficult” to find appealing FBS opponents “with the Big Ten not playing FCS teams anymore.” He said, “We’d like to play regional games against Big Ten or Big 12, but you take the Big Ten out of it, now we have to find any games. ... We’re going to have to expand a little bit and see if we can find games, whether it’s out west or out east or down south.” NDSU also benefits from playing FBS teams outside of the on-field matchups. Klieman: “We need that revenue, we need the money we get from these games” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 9/19). ESPN’s Darren Rovell noted NDSU earned $500,000 from Iowa for Saturday’s game (TWITTER.com, 9/17).
WHO WILL SCHEDULE THE BISON? After NDSU’s win Saturday, the “common question" among television commentators was which FBS teams would want to schedule NDSU. There are “no scheduled games with FBS opponents for the next three seasons,” though Oregon and Colorado have signed to play NDSU in ’20 and ’24, respectively (INFORUM.com, 9/17). In Fargo, Jeff Kolpack noted NDSU’s game against Iowa was the fourth in school history against a Big Ten team -- the other three have all been against Minnesota -- and NDSU has “tried to kindle a Big Ten matchup over the years, but the doors are closed for the foreseeable future.” NDSU AD Matt Larsen said, “We’re not even trying at this point.” He added Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany “has been pretty clear on what their philosophy is so we haven’t reached out to them" (Fargo-Moorhead FORUM, 9/16).
