What are the strengths of this team on offense? On defense? How many starts do you bring back from last season? You had a pretty successful year last year (with A LOT of close losses against some pretty solid competition), so if you bring back a lot of experience, you could make this game closer than most ISU fans want to think.
What level of experience is there on this team? Mostly Jr's/Sr's or So's/Fr?
The ONLY chance I would see NDSU having in this game would be if they were a very successful power run team. ISU's defensive front seven would have to improve dramatically to even be considered "below average", so NDSU may be able to establish the run.
NDSU has no chance if they are going to try and win this game throwing the ball/shutting down ISU's passing attack. ISU will get their yards passing, their passing game is quite effective. NDSU will have to run the ball successfully and keep ISU's offense off the field in order to have a chance here.
For ISU fans who actually think this is more than a "scrimmage", here is some quick info I found on the Bison:
2008 North Dakota State Bison football team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2008 NDSU Football Statistics - North Dakota State University
Overall, the Bison don't appear to have much of a shot here, because ISU's offense should roll. If NDSU gets their run game going, however, this game could become too close for comfort.
I'm planning on going to this game, hopefully it stays competetive for a half or more.
My call:
ISU 42
NDSU 23