Roy Helu Jr. ran 26 times for 95 yards and a touchdown as Nebraska defeated Kansas State 17-3 to win the Big 12 North Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

The Huskers (8-3, 5-2) will play in the conference championship game for the first time since 2006 and fifth time in the Big 12's 14 years. They'll face third-ranked Texas, the South champion, December 5th in Arlington, Texas. The Longhorns clinched the South Division with a 51-20 win over Kansas Saturday night.

"We've steadily improved and we've hung together," said Nebraska coach Bo Pelini. "We were in a tough spot after the Iowa State game and everybody wanted to write us off. There's too much character in the locker room."

First, though, the Huskers travel to Colorado to finish the regular season Friday. "There's not going to be any patting ourselves on the back," said Pelini. "That's for another time. We enjoy this win tonight and then get back to work."

Kansas State (6-6, 4-4) ended its season with losses in three of its last four games. Because two of the Wildcats' wins were against lower-division teams, they needed to beat Nebraska to become eligible for a bowl game.

"We made some mistakes that cost a very fine opportunity for our program, our players and our seniors," said K-State coach Bill Snyder, who came out of a three-year retirement to return to the Wildcats' sideline.

"I was saddened that we couldn't deliver on that opportunity, but I was proud of our football team for putting themselves in the position they were in this evening."

Nebraska's Zac Lee completed 13-of-19 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown. "We're a true team. We're together and we're with the process. We know what we have to do and we don't care what it is as long as we win."

Helu, who has 1,057 yards, gave the Huskers a two-touchdown lead early in the third quarter with his 14-yard run.

"We knew we couldn't let them hang around and be within one touchdown of us," center Jacob Hickman said. "We knew the best way was to come out after half and just score. We ran the ball a little, passed the ball a little and got it in there."

Daniel Thomas ran 19 times for 99 yards and Grant Gregory was 11-of-31 for 126 yards for K-State, but the Wildcats failed to score a touchdown for the second straight game despite their offense spending most of the second half on Nebraska's side of the 50.

Three scoring opportunities were lost when Keithen Valentine fumbled at the Nebraska one and Josh Cherry missed field goals of 51 and 32 yards.

"In the Big 12 you have to score touchdowns to win games," said kick return phenom Brandon Banks, who was held mostly in check. "We left a lot of points on the field."

The Wildcats, trailing by two touchdowns, drove to the Nebraska 25 in the last four minutes, but Ndamukong Suh and Barry Turner teamed up to sack Gregory and the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs when Gregory led Brandon Banks too much on a ball thrown toward the end zone.

The Huskers took over with 3:41 left and were able to run out the clock for their fourth straight win after Lee sneaked for a first down on fourth-and-1 from his own 36.

"We just went in there and said we're going to get this," said Hickman. "We're going to end this game right here and go to Dallas."

Kansas State's only points came at the end of the game's opening series when Cherry kicked a 44-yard field goal.

Nebraska settled for Alex Henery's 34-yard field goal after Lee overthrew Mike McNeill in the corner of the end zone on the Huskers' opening possession.

Lee hooked up with McNeill the next time the Huskers had the ball to put Nebraska up 10-3. McNeill slipped open and snagged the high pass over the middle for a 17-yard touchdown two plays after K-State linebacker John Houlik drilled Lee out of bounds for a 15-yard penalty.

The Huskers were in position to add to their lead after driving to the K-State five, but Lee was sacked by Jeff Fitzgerald and Tysyn Hartman intercepted him in the end zone.

K-State's best scoring chance came after Helu's 14-yard touchdown run gave Nebraska a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter. The Wildcats drove to the Nebraska 13 where they faced third-and-9. Gregory flipped a short pass to Valentine, who had the ball popped loose by safety Larry Asante just before he crossed the goal line. Prince Amukamara recovered for the Huskers.

"We're definitely happy with the situation we're in," said Suh. "We accomplished our main goal, getting to Dallas. But if we want to dominate the North, we have to go out to Colorado and take care of business."