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This would be a sweet trip to make for a bowl game.

http://www.macreportonline.com/NIU_Poinsettia_Bowl.html

Good for them. Congratulations to NIU.

After not getting bids over the past few years, it'll be a well-deserved reward for them...and FOUR bids for the MAC in a somewhat "down" year for the perennial powers is really something!!!

Congrats to NIU!

So if CMU had not been upset by NIU, and we had managed to beat Akron/Miami/Toledo (even after losing to Temple), I could have walked down the street and seen the Falcons in a bowl game?!

I may go to the game anyway in order to double the attendance.

Its official. I got this from my parents (NIU alums) today.

http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/m-foo ... 06aaa.html

It'll be interesting to see how many fans they can bring.

Their last bowl trip, the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose, drew such a meager crowd that the bowl itself disbanded shortly after.

JoeFalcon wrote:It'll be interesting to see how many fans they can bring.

Their last bowl trip, the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose, drew such a meager crowd that the bowl itself disbanded shortly after.

We did our part with 5,000 attending in 2004. Troy brought few fans outside of their band and a few parents. It was a cold and rainy night which kept the locals away.. We also brought 5,000 to Michigan last yaer, 3,000 to OSU this year and 4,000 to Iowa also this year.

NIUBro wrote:

JoeFalcon wrote:It'll be interesting to see how many fans they can bring.

Their last bowl trip, the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose, drew such a meager crowd that the bowl itself disbanded shortly after.

We did our part with 5,000 attending in 2004. Troy brought few fans outside of their band and a few parents. It was a cold and rainy night which kept the locals away.. We also brought 5,000 to Michigan last yaer, 3,000 to OSU this year and 4,000 to Iowa also this year.

Congratulations on getting a bowl bid, especially one outside of the MAC tie-ins. I don’t care who NIU plays, to get a chance to play in a bowl game after teams like Ohio, CMU & WMU got the MAC tie-in bowls is great for NIU and the MAC. And here’s the icing on the cake for NIU, you get to play in San Diego!!!!!! That makes for an awesome trip. Not to knock the MAC bowls, but I’d much rather play in San Diego than Detroit, Mobile or Toronto any day. Anyway, do the MAC right and get a win out there and enjoy it. Good luck.

I'm thinking of the possible irony if Eastern Michigan ever gets invited to the Poinsettia Bowl in the same year San Diego State gets invited to the Motor City Bowl....

NIUBro wrote:

JoeFalcon wrote:It'll be interesting to see how many fans they can bring.

Their last bowl trip, the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose, drew such a meager crowd that the bowl itself disbanded shortly after.

We did our part with 5,000 attending in 2004. Troy brought few fans outside of their band and a few parents. It was a cold and rainy night which kept the locals away.. We also brought 5,000 to Michigan last yaer, 3,000 to OSU this year and 4,000 to Iowa also this year.

I recall that the weather was brutal in that game. It was NIU's first bowl since 1983, so I'd expect that fan base to be chomping at the bit to travel anywhere. The point was about the ability of a team like NIU (and most MAC teams) to be a genuine draw in an area of the country like San Jose or San Diego, where a team like Northern Illinois doesn't exactly stir the passions of the football-inclined locals, let alone the casual sports fan.

Hopefully you can get a nice crowd and represent the MAC well.

Should be interesting to see if Charger RB and NIU alum Michael Turner has a contingent at the game.

Tomlinson (TCU) and Turner will probably have a wager on this one.