Northern Illinois Football Schedules Home-and-Home Series With BYU To Begin In 2018

Day two of NIU's "SchedulePalooza" featured some Ghostbuster's references, lots of speculation, and ultimately a big name future nonconference game for Huskie fans to get excited about. The Huskies officially announced a future home-and-home series with BYU to begin in 2018.

On Oct. 27, 2018 the Huskies will make the trek out to Provo, UTah to take on the Cougars at their place for the first-ever matchup between these programs. The Cougars return the favor by going to DeKalb and NIU's fearsome Huskie Stadium on Oct. 24, 2020.

"BYU is an opponent that will bring a national name and a long tradition of success to our schedule," NIU Athletic Director Sean T. Frazier said in a release. "I think this is a series that will make Huskie fans take notice and realize that we are serious about bringing top-quality opponents to Huskie Stadium and that now is the time to get involved with NIU Football."

Yesterday NIU announced a home-and-home series with San Diego State set to take place in DeKalb in 2016, and at SDSU in 2017.

Earlier this week Frazier promised some big time programs would be coming to the Northern Illinois in the future, and BYU certainly fits that bill. Currently an independent, the Cougars have been a dominant force in college football for the past 40 years. The Cougars won a National Championship in 1984, and Ty Detmer won a  Heisman at BYU in 1990.

With the addition of BYU and SDSU the Huskies are putting together some appetizing future nonconference games, and most importantly they're getting home conference games out of it. The Huskies have struggled to get high profile opponents into Huskie Stadium, partially due to NIU's dominance there. The Huskies currently own a 26-game home winning streak.

Here are some of the big-name programs coming to DeKalb in the coming years:

• 2015-UNLV
• 2016 SDSU
• 2020 BYU