Northern Iowa’s football team is in an unfamiliar place.
The Panthers, regulars in contending for Missouri Valley Football Conference titles and major players on the Football Championship Subdivision national scene, are on the verge of playing for 2017.
Northern Iowa will host Missouri State in a 1 p.m. game Saturday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, and the task is a simple one for Panthers coach Mark Farley.
“We’ve got to be perfect all the way out,” he said Monday. “We have to win out. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”
It’s not where the Panthers usually reside in mid-October.