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Chicago Sun-Times Gets Fooled By Creighton Football April Fools Day Gag

On April 1, 2014, CornNation broke the "story" that Creighton University was starting a football program and joining the Big XII Conference.  Note the publication date:  April Fools Day.  If the date wasn't enough of a tip that the story was a joke, certainly some of the over-the-top elements should have:  'Lil Blue, the new Oklahoma-Creighton rivalry on the Friday after Thanksgiving and the new name for the site:  Dougie Nation.

We thought it was kind of funny, but it's amazing how many people fell for this story. At the 2014 spring game, I heard fans behind me talking about Creighton's new football program, and about lost it.

To this day, this story continues to be one of the site's most viewed stories each day. No matter what else is happening around Nebraska athletics, somebody is always reading about Creighton football.  (For some reason, Iowa State fans have been particularly interested in this story.)  On Wednesday, the spoof was published by the Chicago Sun-Times in a story about Doug McDermott of the Chicago Bulls getting a hat from Jay Harbaugh, an assistant football coach with Michigan.

When Bulls forward Doug McDermott went to Creighton University, the Blue Jays didn't have a football team. This season, the Nebraska school is establishing a football team, but McDermott won't be following the team.

McDermott posted a photo of an University of Michigan hat that was sent by Jay Harbaugh, the son of Jim Harbaugh. Jay is now special teams coach of the Wolverines.

Whoops! Well, the Harbaugh hat part of the story is very much real.

The rest...not so much. It forced Rob Anderson, Creighton's Sports Information Director, to disavow the report.

The Sun-Times subsequently revised the story to remove the reference to our April Fools Day gag, but not before the original version was captured for posterity.

Even the most die-hard Creighton fans had to tip their hat for this one...

How many more reporters will fall for this story?  (Somewhere in Lincoln, KOZN radio host John Bishop is relieved that he's no longer the only media member who's fallen for a CornNation satirical piece.)