NDSU, North Dakota to renew rivalry in 2015

FARGO, N.D. -- A longtime football rivalry between North Dakota's largest colleges that fell apart a decade ago will resume next season, school officials announced Friday.

North Dakota State and North Dakota will play Sept. 19, 2015, at the Fargodome, which is NDSU's home field. The contract also includes a 2019 game in Fargo. UND will receive a cash guarantee of $125,000 for the 2015 game and $140,000 for the 2019 contest.

Bubba Schweigert, the first-year head coach at UND who returned to the school where he once served 15 years as an assistant, said UND officials decided it was worth it to take two trips on the road in order to renew the rivalry.

"As I traveled around the region talking to some of our football alums, one of their fondest memories is playing against our rival North Dakota State," said Schweigert, a Zeeland, North Dakota native. "Too many young men have missed out on that opportunity over the last 11 years."

NDSU has scheduled an afternoon news conference to talk about the game.

The game was once billed as the longest-running rivalry in Division II football. It crumbled when NDSU announced in 2003 it was moving up to Division I and UND rejected NDSU's request for games in 2004 and 2005. UND joined Division I in 2008.

Athletic directors from the two schools talked several times in the past few years about resuming the series but had not been able to broker a deal. The announcement comes after NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor left the school in June to take a newly-created position of deputy director of athletics at Iowa.

UND owns a 62-45-3 advantage in the series that dates to 1894. UND won the last meeting in 2003 to claim the Nickel Trophy that has gone to the victorious school since 1938.

The two schools played together in the Division II North Central Conference. NDSU, the three-time defending champion in the Football Championship Subdivision, now plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. UND is a member of the Big Sky Conference.