It only took nine games for the NIU football team to become bowl eligible, as the Huskies beat Eastern Michigan 50-6 on Thursday night.

It’s the ninth time in the last 10 years NIU has achieved the feat.

“It’s real important,” said NIU head coach Jerry Kill of the win. “If we can keep the youngsters focused, week-to-week, day-to-day, we got a chance to be a good football team.”

The MAC has only three automatic tie-ins to the 34 bowl games this season. These tie-ins include the GMAC Bowl, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (formerly the Motor City Bowl) and the International Bowl. The GMAC bowl gets first pick as to what team it will select from the MAC.

NIU has never traveled to one of the MAC’s three bowl games. However, the MAC is working to try and find postseason opportunities for all its bowl-eligible teams.

“The question is, ‘Will there be those open spots?’ Right now, it’s not tracking like there will be as many open bowl slots as a year ago, but it’s still awful early on that,” said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. “We’re reaching out; we’re in virtually daily contact with any bowl that we’re projecting that could possibly have an opening to keep our names and our faces in front of them.”

In the past five years, the Huskies have made three trips to the postseason by filling at-large slots.

In 2004, NIU beat Troy 34-21 in the Silicon Valley Classic. In 2006, the Huskies lost 37-7 to No. 25 TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl. Last year, NIU lost 17-10 to Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl.

The MAC has four teams that are bowl eligible nine games into the season. With seven wins, Central Michigan and Temple lead the pack. Ohio, like NIU, has six victories. Kent State, while not eligible, is close behind with five wins.

Having seven or more wins is vital, however, to all MAC teams. This is because any bowl game with an at-large slot must select a team with a winning record, before it selects a team with a .500 record.

“Now it’s really, really important to get ready for Ball State,” Kill said. “I think [the players] have bought into what we’ve told them; take one week at a time, and all those other things will happen.”

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