Someone is mistaken.

The Ohio State Web site says that the NIU football team is slated to play Ohio State in 2006. Ohio State Associate Athletic Director Bill Myles backed that up Monday morning, saying the Huskies will face Ohio State in Columbus on Sept. 2, 2006.

“We do have a contract [to play NIU],” Myles said.

NIU Associate Athletic Director Robert Collins, who schedules NIU’s games, denied Myles’ claim.

“We do not have a contract,” Collins said. “We’ve never put anything in writing with Ohio State.”

NIU coach Joe Novak backed Collins’ assertion.

“We’re talking to them, but there’s no deal,” Novak said. “If there was, I’d tell you. That would be a great thing for this university, especially with me being from Ohio.”

NIU has only one game on its 2005 non-conference schedule, a Sept. 10 date with Northwestern. Northwestern upset No. 7 Ohio State Saturday night in Evanston.

“I think we saw this weekend that Northwestern is a typical Big 10 team,” Novak said. “Randy Walker has a good program installed there.”

The Huskies have beaten three Bowl Championship Series-conference teams at Huskie Stadium since 2002, making Collins’ job of finding opponents all the more difficult. He said a game with North Carolina for next season nearly came to fruition but those plans recently fell through.

“When you see Wake Forest, Maryland and Iowa State get beat in DeKalb on national TV, you can bet your bottom dollar people don’t want to come here,” Collins said. “It’s a tough situation.”

Illinois, which beat NIU 17-12 in 2001, is a school many Huskies fans would love to see their team face. The Fighting Illini were 1-11 last season and are winless in their first two Big 10 games this year.

“They’re not going to talk to us until they get good,” Collins said of Illinois.