South Dakota State (1-0) travels to Northwestern, with Northwestern favored by 12.5.
What’s at stake
Northwestern
- Northwestern sits at 4% to make the CFP field — 5% with a win here, 2% with a loss.
- Northwestern hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent since 2020.
South Dakota State
- South Dakota State is coming off a 63-point win.
Face-off
What each fanbase carries into this one.
South Dakota State
The chipThe chip is that SDSU won its first national championship and proved it could repeat it, but the moment of proof is colliding with realignment forces that scatter the competitive landscape.
What this game touches
The end of the Dakota Marker rivalry — almost certainly when NDSU joins the Mountain West. South Dakota State and North Dakota State played for the Dakota Marker from 2004 through 2025. NDSU won the last game 38-7 on October 25, 2025. When NDSU leaves for the FBS in 2026, the annual conference date ends, and with it the rivalry as a protected fixture. The wound is not that SDSU failed to retain NDSU as a rival — it is that the program's primary identity anchor is disappearing by forces outside its control.
Northwestern
The chip · vs the national mediaEvery preseason the Wildcats are picked to finish last, and every few years they don't — and the fanbase has stopped expecting credit for it. They've learned to treat being underestimated as the natural state of a program that was never supposed to belong.
Best players
Northwestern
- Robert Fitzgerald (DB) · 2025: 106 tackles
- Mac Uihlein (LB) · 2025: 89 tackles
- Braydon Brus (LB) · 2025: 81 tackles
The line, and the room
The model and the market don’t fully agree on Northwestern’s chances here.
Home −12.5 · O/U 46
Conditions
72°F · 10 mph wind · Clear
Northwestern is 51% at home, 34% on the road since 2018 (21-20 home, 13-25 away).