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| NIU fullback Kyle Skarb reaches for the end zone in Saturday's 38-31 loss at Ohio. (Scott Walstrom – NIU Media Services) |
ATHENS, Ohio – Break out your Toledo gear, Northern Illinois fans.
Might as well put on your Syracuse, South Florida, Navy, Central Florida, Colorado State and Missouri outfits as well.
It’s bowl-watching season, and the 7-4 Huskies once again likely will rely on the combination of the plethora of bowls and conferences unable to fulfill all of their tie-ins with postseason games to go to a bowl.
Here’s how the situation sets up.
The Mid-American Conference has tie-ins with three bowls, the GMAC Bowl, the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl and the International Bowl.
Three teams are still in contention for a MAC championship in 9-2 Central Michigan, 9-2 Temple and 8-3 Ohio.
The GMAC Bowl has the first selection of a MAC school for its bowl this year and the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl has the second pick, with the International Bowl third.
Should Temple beat Ohio this week and make it a MAC title game of Central Michigan and Temple, the Chippewas and Owls are probably the first two teams off the board for those bowls.
After beating the Huskies, 38-31 on Saturday at Ohio, the Bobcats seemingly have inside position for the International Bowl, leaving the Huskies looking for an at-large spot as they did last year in landing at the Independence Bowl.
The ACC only will have seven bowl eligible teams.
That leaves the GMAC Bowl and EagleBank bowls as open slots. It’s extremely unlikely the GMAC will take a second MAC team and the EagleBank certainly would be more open to it, though EagleBank spokesperson Teri Washington said the MAC does not have a backup agreement with the EagleBank Bowl and MAC assistant commissioner for media and public relations Ken Mather confirmed that the MAC does not have any secondary agreements with bowls this year.
Should Texas Christian go to a BCS bowl game, the New Mexico or Humanitarian Bowl would likely have an open slot. If 5-6 Wyoming loses to 3-8 Colorado State, at least one would be open because the Mountain West Conference wouldn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams.
But, even despite seven wins, it’s becoming more apparent that the Huskies would help their cause greatly by at least putting up a strong showing against Central Michigan on Friday.
Bowling Green is 6-5, but the Falcons have won three straight and five of six, and could get to seven wins, closing the season on a tear by beating Toledo at home on Friday. The Falcons don’t have a win over an automatic qualifying conference school like NIU’s win over Purdue, but bowl committees like taking teams that end the year strong.
That leaves NIU in the unenviable position of cheering for rival Toledo to beat Bowling Green.
The Huskies also would be helped by 8-3 Navy defeating 5-6 Army, 7-4 Missouri beating 5-6 Kansas, 4-7 Syracuse and 7-3 South Florida beating 5-5 Connecticut and 7-4 Central Florida beating 5-6 UAB, as those games could open up more at-large spots.
Of course, beating Central Michigan on Friday and getting to eight wins would alleviate pretty much any potential bowl headache for the Huskies.
“We’re still playing for a lot. We really are,” NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish said. “Eight wins, to beat Central. Obviously we’re not going to go to the MAC Championship, but to get to eight wins would really help our bowl chances and that’s all we’re thinking about right now, is to beat Central Michigan and let the chips fall where they may after that.”
