McFeely: Bison turn destination game into 'Smashville'

NASHVILLE The scene Friday night on Broadway, the main drag through downtown Nashville filled with bars, neon, live music and enough drunk 20-somethings to make any parent nervous, was that of insanity.

Sensory overload.

Chaos.

Saturday, on the other hand, was as predictably mundane as a random Tuesday in Hoople, North Dakota.

ADVERTISEMENT North Dakota State 59, Tennessee State 3.

More telling, the margin was 45-0 at halftime and somehow it didn't seem that close.

Head coach Tim Polasek let the air out of the ball to keep the final score reasonable.

Nashville's NHL team, the Predators, have branded themselves Smashville.

What happened at Nissan Stadium was Murderville.

"It's one thing to get a win, but this is two weeks in a row when we came out ready to play," Polasek said.

"Our job is to play who's on our schedule and to value playing 60 minutes of football.

To come out ready to go like that ...

I don't know how many three-and-outs in a row our defense had there, but we're obviously playing really intentional, sound, together football." The margin is no fault of NDSU.

The opponents are the opponents and with 12-game schedules now the norm in the Football Championship Subdivision, there'll be more of these lopsided outcomes in the future.

ADVERTISEMENT Maybe it's time for a mercy rule in college football.

Running time in the second half.

It could've been used a few times Saturday.

Minnesota led Northwestern State 49-0 at halftime en route to a 66-0 victory.

Florida State hammered East Texas A&M 77-3, with the Seminoles also leading 49-0 at the half.

Those two were Power 4 vs.

FCS matchups.

At least this was FCS-on-FCS violence.

Sort of.

The gulf between the Bison and the Tennessee States of the world was always was as wide as the Pacific Ocean.

In the transfer portal era, it's getting wider.

Between graduation and the portal, the Tigers lost 83 players after last season.

College football programs like TSU generally carry 100-105 players.

You do the math.

This game was never about the competition, of course.

NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen scheduled a home-and-home because TSU is located in Nashville, a city where partying is the order of the day.

This was a "destination game," a gift to Bison fans who wanted to flood downtown Nashville on Friday night and watch a football game Saturday.

And at that, this contest was an A+.

Although, the predictions of 10,000 NDSU fans trekking to the Music City were a stretch.

The announced crowd at the cavernous venue was 8,569, but the turnstile number looked awful lot like 5,000.

A nice Bison fan contingent of perhaps 4,500 made more noise than the 500 Tennessee State fans in attendance.

But in an NFL stadium with a capacity of 69,143, it barely made a dent.

Still, those who made the trip enjoyed themselves.

The players did, too.

While the 26-year-old Nissan Stadium has been deemed obsolete by its main tenants the Tennessee Titans the state and local governments are building a $2.2 billion replacement directly next door the Bison thought it was peachy.

The size, the locker rooms, the training rooms.

All the accouterments.

ADVERTISEMENT "Awesome," is how Bison running back Barika Kpeenu described it.

"The venue, it's a different type of atmosphere.

You know, as a little kid you dream of being on fields like this.

It was like when we played in the Vikings' stadium (in 2023).

So I've played in two so far and it's just a blessing." There are more on the way.

Incarnate Word in lovely San Antonio next year.

A big matchup against Montana State in Las Vegas in 2027.

An FBS game against Oregon in Eugene in 2028.

What could be next? When the idea of a game in Ireland was floated to Larsen on the Nissan Stadium turf after the game, he didn't say no.

NDSU vs.

Harvard in Dublin in 2029.

Great venue and a better game than Saturday.

Win-win..

This article has been shared from the original article on thedickinsonpress, here is the link to the original article.