By Woodrow Carroll
Northern Illinois University’s 41-23 victory against Kent State in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship game Saturday, Dec. 4 may have been bit of a surprise to some observers.
Host Kent State beat Northern Illinois, 52-47, when the two teams played in the regular season. In the MAC championship game, Northern Illinois led 17-0 at half time and never trailed.
The Huskies’ victory moved Northern Illinois to 5-4 in MAC championship games going back to 2005. Throw in a 36-14 loss to Duke in the 2017 Quick Lane Bowl and Northern Illinois fans have become very familiar with Detroit’s Ford Field.
Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock found a turn-around season. The Huskies were 0-6 last year in pandemic-shortened season.
Next up for Northern Illinois, 9-4, will be the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla. December 17. The Huskies will take on the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina, 10-2.
Coastal Carolina is in the Conway/Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area. A Chanticleer is a fairy tail rooster known for his clever ways.
The school colors are teal and bronze.
The Cure Bowl (think pink) is in its seventh year with a stated aim of the bowl is to further breast cancer research. This year’s game will be played at Exploria Stadium, capacity 25,000, in downtown Orlando. The game is a football first for the stadium which is largely used for soccer matches. The Cure Bowl and Bahamas Bowl are the first of this season’s bowl games December 17. Only 10 bowls will feature conference champions.
A member of the Sun Belt’s East Division, Coastal Carolina finished in second place, one game back of Appalachian State in the East Division. The two defeats suffered by the Chanticleers were to division rivals, Appalachian State and Georgia State.
The Huskies are in need of a another turnaround in bowl games.
Since beating Arkansas State, 38-20, in the 2011 GoDaddy. Com Bowl, Northern Illinois has suffered six straight bowl game defeats. Other than a 21-14 loss to Utah State in the 2013 Poinsettia Bowl, all the recent bowl setbacks suffered by Northern Illinois have been in the double digits.
Each season there is an outcry over the growing number of bowl games. Seemingly, the cry goes unheard.
Thanks to the last moment addition of the Frisco Football Classic, December 23, all eight MAC teams with six or more victories will be in a bowl game. The game, to be played in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, will pit MAC member Miami, Ohio, 6-6 against North Texas, 6-6.
The MAC is one of 10 conferences, plus independents, playing major college football (FBS) Once the bowl games get under way, it’s similar to the first week of the NCAA Basketball Tournament: Games galore!