On Nov. 4 of this year, the Cyclone football team will travel to a possibly snow-covered Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., to face the defending national champions.

The game will undoubtedly be rough, probably the toughest test of the year for new Iowa State Head Coach Dan McCarney. If the polls and the analysts are correct, a frosty field may be preferable, because by nearly all accounts, it’ll take a snowball in Husker hell to pull out a win.

If ISU’s season goes according to predictions, the Cyclones will be scraping the bottom of the Big Eight’s final barrel and Nebraska will be well on its way to a warmer climate with an invitation from the wealthy Bowl Alliance, barring an improbable miracle.

But miracles do happen, just ask Tom Osborne about his 1992 road trip to Cyclone Stadium. And what if the football gods are shining on a struggling ISU team Nov. 4?

Ponder this fiction: With Nebraska, in a dead heat with Colorado for the conference crown, leading 19-14 late in the fourth quarter, Husker quarterback Tommie Frazier fumbles on his own 40-yard line. ISU stud linebacker Tim Sanders recovers.

On the strong arm of quarterback Todd Doxzon, playing in his own backyard, and the brilliant running of sophomore sensation Troy Davis, the Cyclones drive to within inches of the end zone and call time out with 1 second left on the clock. The Nebraska defense is morally drained and the Big Red crowd is stunned.

Davis — who needs just one yard to break Dave Hoppmann’s 1961 single game rushing record of 271 yards — wants the ball. With the go-ahead from the powers that be, the guy that apparently wasn’t good enough to play as a freshman can single-handedly pull the biggest college football upset in 1995.

The problem: Sending Davis over the top would be a costly move, and not just for Nebraska. If ISU scores, Nebraska will in all likelihood not be extended a Bowl Alliance invitation, which could cost Big Eight members around $500,000 each.

One more win for ISU would be a great boost for the new coaching staff and a tremendous accomplishment for a young team, but statistically meaningless. What’s more, $500,000, however it’s earned, is an athletic administration dream. With the right stockbroker, it could fund a men’s golf program from now until the end of time.

What to do? What to do? Send Davis in, lose a half-million. Send Doxzon down on one knee, pass up the opportunity of a Cyclone lifetime. Either way, nobody wins. Either way, there’s trouble.

I know, I know; it could never happen, right? But what if it does? Could a financially strapped athletic department really pass up $500,000 for the sake of pride? Could anyone really pass up a chance to beat the Huskers on their home turf?

It’s one or the other, and there just ain’t no in between.

But if it came down to it, McCarney would, and should, take the win in a heartbeat. Rarely, however, does a play from the sidelines carry a $500,000 price tag. You could even argue that a win over Nebraska, in Nebraska, may in the long run be worth more than a half-million. Maybe.

Still, it’s a toughie.

McCarney’s directions to Davis might go something like this: “You got it baby. It’s all you. The weight of the entire Cyclone world is on your shoulders. Do us proud, but if Gene Smith or Reid Crawford ask, it was Doxzon who called the play.”

Chris Miller is a junior in journalism from Marshalltown. He is head news editor of the Daily.