Northern Illinois is headed for the Orange Bowl against Florida State New Years night at 7:30pm.NIU becomes only the fifth school outside of the AQ conferences to qualify for a BCS bowl and the first from the MAC. The other four schools are Boise State, TCU, Hawaii and Utah. Remarkably, in the seven BCS bowls those teams have appeared in they have a record of 5-2. And one of those losses was by TCU against Boise State in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.Northern is 12-1 this season and won its second straight MAC title on Friday night, defeating Kent State 44-37 in double overtime.

Northwestern is also playing in the Sunshine State on New Years Day at 11:30am against Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. The Wildcats will be in their