Northern Illinois' inclusion in the Orange Bowl was widely debated by college football analysts following their selection last month.
As the only non-automatic qualifying conference team to make a BCS bowl, skeptics pointed to the Huskies' lax schedule and lone loss to Big Ten bottom-dweller Iowa as reasons they didn't belong.
And that frustration manifested itself among bowl representatives as well. According to CBS Sports, the day before the game an Orange Bowl a rep got in a heated debate with a NIU staff member, arguing about their selection. Here's what was said:
“You guys [NIU] don't even deserve to be here,” the Orange Bowl rep said to the NIU staffer. “We didn't even want you here.”
Harsh words, but were they warranted?
Everyone knew that Northern Illinois was a little bit of an ugly duckling for BCS bowl committees, but there was nothing anybody could really do about their selection either.
Several loopholes in the BCS rulebook (finishing higher than an AQ conference champion and higher than 15 in the AP Poll) enabled the Huskies to secure a bid to the Orange Bowl. Northern Illinois met all the requirements to qualify and officials were handcuffed by the limit of two teams per AQ conferences.
On the field, the game ended up being fairly competitive until the fourth quarter with Northern Illinois using an assortment of trick plays to enter the final stanza down 17-10. Barring an interception following an onside kick recovery, and it might have been closer. The Huskies ultimately fell 31-10 to the Seminoles.
We get it, bowl games are a business. Advertising dollars and ticket sales with the latter being contingent on a matchup between high-profile teams and geographical constraints. Northern Illinois isn't necessarily the biggest draw, and it was likely the low demand for tickets that set the representative off.
But the representative's malice should once again be directed at the BCS, not at Northern Illinois. The Huskies simply beat the system.
