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Will Northern Illinois’ loss to Iowa cost the Huskies a BCS bowl berth?
If Northern Illinois wins tonight, it may be on the BCS bubble
(UPDATE: Northern Illinois beat Kent State in double-overtime Friday night.)
It was three months ago tomorrow. Who could have seen the potential damage it may have caused?
With his team trailing 17-12 to Northern Illinois at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Iowa running back Damon Bullock ran untouched around the left end for a 23-yard touchdown with 2:15 left in the game. That gave the Hawkeyes an 18-17 lead, and that was the final score.
This Damon Bullock TD could end up costing Northern Illinois more than a win (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)
OK, fine. Iowa was favored against the Mid-American Conference team, and escaped with the win. It raised no eyebrows, other than for how hard the Hawkeyes had to labor to secure the victory.
But here we are, awaiting tonight’s Northern Illinois-Kent State MAC championship game in Detroit, and that Huskies loss to Iowa three months ago may cost it an Orange Bowl berth. Or it may not.
The highest-ranked champion of a non-automatic qualifying conference (the MAC is one such league) will receive an automatic berth if it is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings or if it is ranked in the top 16 and is higher than at least one champion of an automatic qualifying champion.
Kent State is 17th in the latest BCS standings, Northern Illinois 21st. Louisville, which beat Rutgers to clinch the Big East’s automatic BCS berth, was not in the top 25 of the last BCS poll, and isn’t likely to jet into the top 16.
Now, if Kent State wins tonight, one would think it could get enough of a boost to hop into the top 16. But what if Northern Illinois, a 7-point favorite, prevails?
Well, NIU would have to jump over five teams. Kent State would be one. No. 16 UCLA could easily lose to Stanford in tonight’s Pac-12 title game at
Kent State players have rung their victory bell a lot this season (AP photo)
Stanford. No. 18 Texas could easily lose at Kansas State Saturday.
Would a win tonight be enough to get the Huskies over No. 19 Michigan and No. 20 Boise State? You’d like to think so. I would, anyhow.
Had the Huskies just held on against Iowa, a win tonight would have made them 13-0, America’s sweethearts, and probably Florida State’s opponent in the Orange Bowl. And Iowa would have been 3-9 instead of 4-8.
Anyway, here’s hoping the MAC champ does squeeze into a BCS game. If that means Oklahoma doesn’t get to go to the Sugar Bowl, and the BCS bowls (Louisville-Florida in the Sugar, MAC champ-Florida State in the Orange) are considered dogs, well boo hoo.
(Northern Illinois University photo)
In a side note, tonight is the last chance for Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch to try to siphon some Heisman Trophy votes. He’s probably not a Top-8 guy right now, but look at these numbers: 23 touchdowns to just four interceptions, 16 rushing touchdowns, 2,750 passing yards, 1,611 rushing yards. He’s fifth in the nation in rushing, 12th in passing efficiency, third in total offense. That’s a combination, folks.
But on Sept. 1, Lynch had just 173 yards of total offense (119 rushing yards, 6-of-16 passing for 54 yards) against Iowa. He averaged 378 yards of total offense in the 11 games that followed.
If the Huskies win tonight, I can say I saw Lynch play in person once and he was nothing special. And then I’ll put him atop my Heisman ballot, anyway.
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It is worth pointing out that the NIU game was the only game I saw what appeared to be an offense unlike KOK’s and Kirk Ferentz’s usual preoccupations as there was pace, no-huddle, and some nuance. After this game, mainly (I think) because Vandenberg was sacked 6 times or whatever, we began eviscerating most of what we saw in this game. It is also worth noting that the game was won on a brilliant 3rd down run call by Davis who had told KF at halftime it was there and he sat on it until the perfect moment.
My point is, this heap we saw this year is as much if not more KF’s heap as it is Davis and Parker.
This article isn’t about Iowa, Pete..its about NIU. So why you feel the need to rip on Iowa’s coaching staff here is beyond me.
Now, getting back to the article–NIU shouldn’t be even considered for BCS bowl. Why? They play in the MAC. Quite frankly, these schools shouldn’t even be playing at the FCS level. Schools like Kent State, NIU, etc…should all be playing at the FBS level with schools like Northern Iowa.
From 2012: Ohio won at Penn State, Central Michigan won at Iowa, Ball State beat Indiana, and Kent State won at Rutgers.
No FCS team beat a Big Ten team this year in eight tries, although Northern Iowa certainly came close at Wisconsin.
Relegated to playing spoiler for a mighty MAC program is somewhat beneath our once proud program. Did you catch the WI game last evening? If so, is it now safe to say “minor” staff turnover is not a viable excuse for a 4-8 season? You would think WI has a $4,000,000 per, offensive line guru running the show or something………..