The Inside Zone

The Inside Zone

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Notre Dame keeps winning, which means Northern Illinois keeps winning
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Notre Dame keeps winning, which means Northern Illinois keeps winning

The Huskies' Sept. 7 upset of the Irish gets mentioned in nearly every discussion about Notre Dame. That's been good for business in DeKalb.

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Matt Fortuna
Jan 15, 2025
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The Inside Zone
Notre Dame keeps winning, which means Northern Illinois keeps winning
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Four months later, Sean Frazier can’t escape it.

Every national championship preview this week makes mention of it. Hell, the Northern Illinois athletic director was minding his business Tuesday while walking the hallway of the NCAA Convention in Nashville, and even AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti had to bring up NIU’s upset of Notre Dame when he bumped into him.

“I said, Yeah, I’m sure Michigan is loving it too with Ohio State,” Frazier told The Inside Zone, laughing. “Hey, let’s get an undercard going. Let’s get the two teams that knocked them off and have an undercard. Even better, let’s have a Week Zero game with the two teams that beat them.”

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How about an ESPN alt-cast Monday featuring coaches Thomas Hammock (NIU) and Sherrone Moore (Michigan) instead?

By point spread, no upset was bigger than NIU’s in South Bend back on Sept. 7. By shock value, Michigan’s regular-season finale at Ohio State ranks right up there.

But Michigan is Michigan, the winningest program in the sport’s history and, for a few more days, the reigning national champions.

NIU? The MAC school in DeKalb?

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