NU vs. Oklahoma will open season

Northwestern has accepted an invitation to open the footballseason against Oklahoma in the Pigskin Classic at Soldier Field. Thegame will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 23.

For the Wildcats, it means an additional game on national TV(ABC) and $650,000. Big Ten rules call for the league's teams toshare bowl money, but that doesn't apply to preseason bowl games, soall the money is NU's to keep.

Neither NU officials nor Pigskin Classic officials would confirmthe Wildcats will play in the game. But Oklahoma assistant athleticdirector Mike Prusinski did."The deal is done," he said. "They don't want to announce ituntil Friday morning because they're still working out a few detailswith Soldier Field. But it's all pretty cut and dried."NU officials acknowledged only that they were speaking withPigskin Classic officials. But the Oklahoma athletic department wasready to issue a press release quoting NU coach Gary Barnett assaying, "Our players and staff are very excited for the opportunityto play in the Pigskin Classic, especially against such atradition-rich program like Oklahoma."The Pigskin Classic, which opens the nation's football season,used to be played in Anaheim, Calif. But there was so littleinterest in the game there, it switched to a participating team'shome field. NU's Dyche Stadium is under heavy reconstruction, andthere was concern it wouldn't be done in time for the game.Oklahoma, traditionally one of the top programs in the country,has fallen on hard times lately, going 3-8 last year. None of themembers of its senior class has played in a bowl game."So we're going to treat this like a postseason bowl game,"Prusinski said. "We're going to come up to Chicago on Wednesday andtake in the sights."Originally, the Pigskin Classic signed Nebraska to play in thegame but couldn't find anyone willing to play the Cornhuskers.Finally, Clemson stepped up, but Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said hedidn't want to play Clemson. Nebraska pulled out late last week, andthe game's officials went looking for two teams."They called us and said, `Are you interested in playingNorthwestern?' " Prusinski said. "We said, `Sure. Are you kidding?We'd love to.' "