It's homecoming at Montana State University-Northern. That in itself is a reason to get loud and crazy at Saturday's football game.

    But there's so much more which surrounds Saturday's game inside Blue Pony Stadium between the 23rd-ranked Montana State University-Northern Lights and the 12th-ranked Eastern Oregon Mountaineers.

    In fact, this game is huge.

    Both the Lights and Mounties jumped into the NAIA Top 25 this week making Saturday's game a nationally-ranked showdown. That in itself is exciting as the game will garner some national attention. Then there's the fact that first place in the Frontier Conference is on the line Saturday afternoon and for a change, it doesn't involve mighty Carroll College. Instead, it's the Lights and Mounties who are battling for the top spot right now, and that should make Northern fans jump at the chance to see this one.

    There's also a competitive spirit which always surrounds Northern/EOU games. The rivalry really revved up when Northern had a chance to clinch a share of the 2006 Frontier title in November of 2006. The Lights had just knocked off Carroll, but the next week in LaGrande' Ore., the Mountaineers upset the Lights in a low-scoring affair allowing the Saints to hold on to sole possession of the league title that year.

    Since that time, games between the Lights and Mounties have been barn burners. Both teams have been in each others way when it comes to progress in recent years, including last season when the Mounties pulled off not one, but two come-from-behind victories against the Lights.

    Those are all fact Northern hasn't forgotten and the Lights will be amped up on Saturday.

    And the Lights will be fired up to play. It's homecoming and it's EOU and it's a big game in Blue Pony Stadium. Don't miss this one.