Ogden, Utah - It’s about a 12-hour drive from the Weber State campus to Eugene, Ore., and, as of Saturday evening, there was no word if anybody heading toward the Pacific Ocean saw any ESPN trucks driving east.

For a while, it was looking like they may be diverted south or somewhere toward the East Coast. It wasn’t pretty, but the boys will be back in town.

In a win-and-you’re-in proposition, North Dakota State defeated Weber State 24-7 and as a result, ESPN’s “College GameDay” is returning to Fargo for the second consecutive year. Getting the show to an FCS school once was considered a coup of improbable proportions.

Not sure what you call two straight.

Bizarre?

“To think two years in a row, I don’t know what to say,” said Bison defensive end Kyle Emanuel. “It’s unreal. It’s more than a dream come true.”

It was a bizarre day. The “GameDay” show was broadcast Saturday morning from the Michigan State at Oregon game. During the game, host Chris Fowler tweeted the Bison-Weber game may have “GameDay” implications.

The social media talk all day, of course, was the tweet by show producer Lee Fitting that if the Bison defeated Weber, it would return to Fargo. It wasn’t the best of scenarios for any coaching staff – in this day and age, everybody is in tune with Twitter.

“I tried not to think about it too much,” Emanuel said.

Asked before the game if his players were paying attention, head coach Chris Klieman calmly downplayed the announcement.

“I know there are some tweets out there, but our focus is on playing Weber State and to get a little bit better this week,” he said.

The focus wasn’t real great by the offense. As fine-tuned as it looked in the second half against Iowa State last week, there were several off-key notes on Saturday.

Penalties were costly, quarterback Carson Wentz had a few decisions he’d like to have over again, and the offensive line wasn’t bowling over opponents like some thought it would against a defense that was supposedly not very good.

“I had my two poor decisions,” Wentz said of his interceptions. “I have to shake them off and learn from them.”

There was no shame in not blowing this team out. Weber did not look like a team that won four games in the two previous years.

It actually looked like it belonged in the physical Missouri Valley Football Conference.

“That was a good football team we beat,” Klieman said. “They gave us some fits.”

Still, some of those preseason questions are still there. Before the season, Klieman figured it would take the four nonconference games to sort some things out and he’s right.

NDSU needed a fumble return for a touchdown by Carlton Littlejohn, a fake field goal stop by Littlejohn two yards from the end zone and just enough offense to escape the upset.

With 4:17 left in the game, Fitting made it official with another tweet, saying he hopes the Bison fans can match the scene they provided last year.

If it’s downtown, here’s some advice: Don’t worry about it being too packed. The Fargo Marathon proved you can jam thousands of people in there.

So get ready for Kirk, Lee, Desmond and Chris.

“I think it means the red carpet treatment that we gave them last time will be even better this time,” said NDSU interim athletic director Prakash Mathew, so far the only undefeated A.D. in NDSU history.

Two Bison fans tailgating outside Stewart Stadium before the Bison-Weber game will be there. Brenda and Randy Mork from Parker, Colo., have been all over the place lately.

They were in Ames, Iowa, last week. They’ll be in Fargo next weekend for two reasons: They’ve never seen the Fargodome, and they want to be part of “GameDay.”

“We can’t believe it, two years in a row ‘GameDay’ in Fargo,” Brenda said.

Neither can anybody else.

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