Jackrabbits Face Road Test at UNI
November 5, 2026
BROOKINGS, S.D.–The South Dakota State football team begins the final month of the regular season by going back on the road for a matchup against a Northern Iowa squad that has successfully defended its home field throughout the 2026 campaign.
Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The game will be televised through the ESPN+ streaming platform.
The Jackrabbits enter the week with a 7-2 overall record and tied atop the Missouri Valley Football Conference in the loss column with Youngstown State with a 4-1 league mark. SDSU is fifth in both major Football Championship Subdivision polls after posting back-to-back home wins over Murray State (42-6) and South Dakota (31-21) the past two weeks.
Northern Iowa, meanwhile, is receiving votes in both the media and coaches’ polls after compiling a 4-4 overall record and a 3-2 mark in the MVFC this far this season. The Panthers are a perfect 4-0 at home, including notching a pair of wins already this year against top-10 teams in Illinois State (28-21 on Sept. 26) and North Dakota (24-17 on Oct. 10).
UNI exceeded its win total from a year ago with a 45-23 home victory last weekend against Indiana State.
THE SERIES: Saturday’s game marks the 63rd all-time meeting on the gridiron between SDSU and UNI. The two squads met regularly from the time the series started in 1935 until UNI (formerly Iowa Teachers College) left the North Central Conference in the late 1970s to join the Division I ranks.
UNI holds a 33-27-2 advantage in the series, which includes the two teams splitting matchups in the FCS playoffs during the 2017 and 2019 seasons at SDSU’s Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
Since SDSU joined the Football Championship Subdivision in 2004, the series is tied at 11 wins apiece as the Jackrabbits have drawn even by winning the last four meetings. The Jackrabbits have not allowed a touchdown over the last three contests in the series, outscoring UNI by a total of 113-12 as the Panthers have mustered only four field goals.
Home-field advantage has meant little over the years as the road team has won nine of the last 14 meetings dating back to 2014. That includes three consecutive victories by the Jackrabbits inside the UNI-Dome, starting with a come-from-behind, 24-20 victory to kick off the COVID-altered 2020-21 spring season.
RANKINGS STREAK: South Dakota State has held a top-five ranking in all 11 Football Championship Subdivision polls conducted thus far during the 2026 season and reached another rankings milestone this week.
The Jackrabbits began the season at No. 3 in the Stats Perform media poll and held the No. 2 spot for five weeks before ascending to No. 1 for the first time in Dan Jackson‘s tenure as head coach in early October.
SDSU was ranked first for two weeks before falling to No. 5 after an Oct. 17 loss at North Dakota. The Jackrabbits have now appeared in the top 25 of 200 consecutive Stats Perform polls dating back to October 2012.
The Jacks previously held the top spot in 29 consecutive polls from Oct. 17, 2022, until relinquishing the top spot following their regular season loss at North Dakota State on Oct. 19, 2024.
