The road ends in Cedar Falls, Iowa for the 2023 regular season of North Dakota State football.

 

For the first time since the 2019 season, NDSU ends the regular season on the road and in unfamiliar spot, needing a win to solidify its playoff standing. The Bison picked up a huge 34-10 victory last week against Southern Illinois to reach the 7-win plateau, but another win this week could potentially earn them a playoff seed and with it, a much needed week off.

 

Northern Iowa was thinking playoff seed at this time last week and then lost a clunker at Missouri State 35-16, in a game that wasn't as close as the score suggests.

 

UNI now enters with a 6-4 record, needing a win to extend its season to the playoffs, a place they haven't been since losing in the first round in 2021 to Eastern Washington.

 

The Bison haven't lost to the Panthers since 2014, a 23-3 game that saw UNI end a then-record 33-game win streak for NDSU. Fans stormed the UNI-Dome field. After that, the Bison have posted wins in Cedar Falls in 2016, 2018 and in the weird spring season of 2021.

 

The Panthers are led by sixth year quarterback Theo Day, who took over as the starter in 2021 and was sacked five times in Fargo in the last game these two teams played, a 34-20 Bison win.

 

WDAY's Dom Izzo and The Forum's Jeff Kolpack preview the matchup and break down all the potential playoff scenarios surrounding NDSU heading into Selection Sunday.