Welcome to this week's edition of the HuskieWire.com Q&A.
Every Thursday, I'll answer your NIU and MAC-related questions right here. Do you have a question about NIU or the MAC? E-mail your questions to me at jsahly@daily-chronicle.com and I'll answer them next Thursday.
Here are this week's questions and answers:
Ed asked:
Do you have an idea as to the number of available scholarships the Huskie football team can offer this year? I am hearing some verbals may grayshirt and others may count against next years total and am hearing various reports as to the number of recruits we can bring in. Getting very confusing.
Is the Chronicle planning to have another online chat scheduled for right around the upcoming signing day? I really enjoyed the chat we had on that last year.
What was the payout for the International Bowl and did we make any money on that game?
John Sahly: Ed, in order of your questions...
1. I believe it's around 13-14 available scholarships, and could be more or less depending on a few things (any walk-ons that might receive scholarships, whether baseball player Jayme Wells does come out for football as he's expected to, etc.). As we reported when Geneva DT Frank Boenzi gave his verbal commitment to the Huskies, he will likely grayshirt.
2. We do have some plans in the works for signing day. Last year we had the live blog in the morning, coverage from the news conference and the live chat in the afternoon. I'm certainly hoping to do something along those lines again this year, especially the live chat, so get ready to chat with me on signing day everyone. I'm already looking forward to it.
3. The payout has been $750,000 per team from the International Bowl in past years and I haven't heard anything about that changing. Last year we were able to discuss NIU's entire bowl budget with the athletic department around April and I think that will be the case again this year.
