Making an Orange Bowl, grabbing a BCS bid, having a Heisman Trophy finalist and dominating the MAC still hasn’t out NIU football where it ultimately wants to be, or even where it should be. It’s time for a NIU football to move up a weight class. NIU has the longest home winning streak in all of college football, and the fourth most wins of any FBS program since 2010.
This fall, expect them to win all their home games, dominate the MAC, and win at least 10 or 11. This #MACtion thing has run its course.
The idea of NIU football in the Big 12 has been written about somewhat already. That argument has plenty of merit, but also a whole lot of flaws.
At this point, the Big 12 needs to take some swift action. As we learned this past December, the College Football Playoff selection committee punishes you for not playing a conference championship game. Big 12 members Baylor and TCU learned that the hard way. And because the NCAA is subjective, inconsistent, arbitrary and capricious, you need 12 teams in your league to have a conference title game.
In other words, the Big 12 might become like a desperate person in a bar at closing time if they get shut out of the playoff again this season. In other words, Directional Schools will become viable candidates. As it stands now, NIU would logically need a step up to a bigger conference now, and then if everything goes well, the Big 12 down the line. Maybe that move would conveniently correspond with the completed expansion of the NIU football stadium.
For now it’s another year of the MAC’s big red (and black) machine rolling through the Mid-American Conference. Here’s a more detailed analysis on whether or not the Big 12 and NIU would be a good fit.
And here’s the audio of our exclusive with NIU A.D. Sean Frazier, discussing NIU’s potential conference realignment.
NIU football reasons to get EXCITED! ALL CAPS! QB Drew Hare is not Chandler Harnisch or Jordan Lynch; but he’s pretty damn good. In his first year as a starter he had an 18-2 TD to INT ratio. Now he has a full year of starting experience under his belt; plus he can feel at ease with the fact that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder.
Expect bigger and better things, as he has a very talented and deep receiving corps. There are about six to eight receivers who could make a difference this season. Also, expect the tailback position to be by committee. Perhaps you’ll see three main ball-carriers, and that should work out just fine.
The secondary is experienced and talented, and Linebacker Boomer Mays is one to keep an eye on. The defense returns seven starters so NIU should do a good job stopping their opponents most of the time.
NIU football reasons to be worried :(
The offensive line is very young. I’m not exactly sold on their defensive line either. If Coach Rod Carey hasn’t adequately prepared his team for the early season trip to Columbus, week three could get pretty ugly. Ohio State is a de facto SEC team that just happens to be in a non-Confederacy state. And we remember how ugly it got last year when the Huskies went below the Mason-Dixon line to play a team from Dixie- Arkansas 52, NIU 14.
The SEC is like the AAA of the NFL, and Ohio State’s roster this season is essentially a NFL D-League franchise; like Kentucky basketball has become a NBA D-League. Urban Meyer has made Ohio State the new Alabama.
NIU football bottom line: This year brings higher expectations and something to prove. NIU was embarrassed in their bowl game as well as in the 2013 MAC title game. If they want to prove that their Big 12 material, and/or no longer a mid-major, it’s time for them to end their three game bowl drought. We’ll see double digit wins for sure; probably another conference title. But another BCS bid? Probably not.
With another, I’m guessing 11 win season, we’ll see NIU football fans do what they most enjoy doing- proclaim themselves to be better than Illinois. Following their upset at Northwestern, NIU football fans became even more emboldened in their “best team in the state” proclamation.
That may or may not be true, and I would love to see them finally schedule another game soon and schedule it on the field NIU had their chance in 2010 and they did not carpe diem. Nothing turns on a NIU football fan quite like pointing and laughing at the train wreck the Illini have become.
What these NIU fans need to realize though is that there’s no honor in becoming “state champions.” Illini Athletic Director Mike Thomas has done more damage to his own football program than any opponent can inflict. NIU football needs to dream and aspire to something much bigger than that.
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Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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