NIU, Northwestern Football Teams Going Bowling

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 3, 2012 6:40PM

The Northwestern Wildcats and Northern Illinois Huskies both received their formal bowl invites over the weekend, with the Huskies snagging an improbable BCS bowl bid and the Wildcats also earning a berth in a New Years day game.

Northern Illinois Earns Orange Bowl Bid, Loses Coach

On Friday night, Northern Illinois upset Kent State 44-37 in double overtime to win the MAC title. When the final BCS rankings were released on Sunday, the Huskies were ranked 15th, ahead of two automatic bid conference winners, and earned the MAC its first BCS berth in the 14-year history of the system.

The Huskies will face off against the ACC champ Florida St. Seminoles in the Discover Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. However, when the Huskies take the field, they'll be without the head coach who got them this far. Dave Doeren accepted the North Carolina State job on Saturday. Doeren said he will not coach in the bowl game, so the program has been placed in the hands of offensive coordinator Rod Carey. Once again, we'll reiterate the travesty it is that the NCAA does not have a moratorium on coaching hires until the national championship is played.

Northwestern Wildcats To Play in Gator Bowl

When the Wisconsin Badgers routed the Nebraska Cornhuskers for the Big Ten title, it threw the bowl projections into chaos for the conference. With the 8-5 Badgers winning the conference's automatic berth in the Rose Bowl, the Cornhuskers slipped to the Capital One Bowl, and Michigan was selected by the Outback Bowl. That left 9-3 Northwestern to play in the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl despite the third best record overall in the Big Ten and third place in the Big Ten Legends division. The Wildcats will face the Mississippi St. Bulldogs, who finished 8-4 and fourth place in the SEC West.