College football is officially back! Week 0 kicked off on Thursday Night, and while the FBS teams won't kick off the season until Saturday, there was a ton of exciting games. While the traditional unranked team over top 25 upset is the most exciting, these early games in the beginning of the season are where you can see teams from a lower level pick a higher level of program off.
On Thursday Night, there was a showdown in Louisiana between Division I Northwestern State and NAIA Louisiana Christian. While many weren't paying close attention to the matchup, college football was treated to one of the rarest upsets.
Louisiana Christian pulls off second ever NAIA over Division I upset
When Northwestern State faced off against Louisiana Christian on Thursday Night, few saw a historic upset taking place. Instead, the Louisiana Christian Wildcats stunned their in-state rivals, picking up a 42-37 win over the Demons.
On the broadcast, the analysts said that the upset marked the first time that a Division I scholarship program lost to an NAIA opponent, but it actually was the second time. The first upset came when Sioux Falls beat North Dakota 28-13 in 2009, led by a head coach named Kalen DeBoer. Cool story, but surely he didn’t amount to much.
In a sense, Northwestern State being the team that got picked off shouldn't be much of a surprise as they've fallen on hard times as of late. The Demons are 1-29 over their last 30 games, and they aren't exactly the biggest Division I program.
The upset is still crazy when you think about the major differences at each level of football. NAIA programs generally operate at a much smaller level with a smaller budget, smaller staff, worse facilities, and simply far less resources than are available at the Division I level.
Louisiana Christian pulled off the upset thanks to their defense forcing 3 turnovers as Northwestern State outgained the Wildcats by 178 yards. Running back Datlan Cunningham was the star of the show for Louisiana Christian with 117 yards and 2 touchdowns, averaging 8.4 yards per carry.
The upset may not be the high-profile stunner some fans are waiting for, but it's truly a remarkable achievement for Louisiana Christian.
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