Friday night, Dave Doeren earned his second consecutive MAC championship in Northern Illinois’ wild, double-overtime win over Kent State. On Saturday, he earned a new job: According to an official release from the university, Doeren has agreed to become the new coach at North Carolina State, replacing the fired Tom O’Brien.In the release, athletic director Debbie Yow called Doeren a “highly motivated overachiever” who shares the university’s goals “in the classroom and on the field of competition,” while Doeren, 40, praised N.C. State’s “world-class facilities and fans that are second to none.” It’s unclear whether Doeren will stay at NIU to coach a bowl game or take over in Raleigh immediately.At Northern, Doeren inherited a winner from his predecessor, then Minnesota-bound Jerry Kill, whose third and final NIU team in 2010 won 11 games and played for the MAC championship. But Doeren saw that success, and raised it: In two years, his Huskies are 17-1 in MAC games with back-to-back conference titles. They are currently tied with Notre Dame and Ohio State for the nation’s longest winning streak at 12 games. At 12-1, NIU is likely to finish in the Top 25 in the final polls for the first time in school history, and with Friday night’s win have an outside shot at a BCS bowl bid if they can climb from No. 21 in the current BCS standings to No. 16 or higher when the final rankings are released on Sunday night.Before landing at NIU, Doeren spent five years as defensive coordinator on Bret Bielema’s staff at Wisconsin. He has also served as a linebackers coach at Kansas (2002-05) and Montana (2000-01). He played linebacker at Drake University in Iowa.At N.C. State, he’ll inherit another winner, albeit one that had begun to grow stale in O’Brien’s sixth year. After a 9-4 breakthrough in 2010, the Wolfpack came in at 8-5 in 2011 and 7-5 this year, earning a single win against an opponent with a winning record — a 17-16 upset over then-unbeaten Florida State on Oct. 6. After knocking off the Noles, N.C. State lost three of its last six, including a last-second heartbreaker to rival North Carolina and an embarrassing, 33-6 shellacking at the hands of Virginia. The Wolfpack have not won an ACC championship since 1979 and have only won 10 games in a season once in school history, with an 11-3 finish in 2002.

DETROIT—Jordan Lynch and Northern Illinois won a MAC title game that lived up to the hype.Now the Huskies are lobbying for a chance to play on an even bigger stage.

“I hope we get into a BCS game,” Lynch said. “We showed the country what we can do tonight, and we play our best game every week.”

Lynch ran for three touchdowns, including a 2-yarder in the second overtime, and Demetrius Stone’s interception in the end zone gave No. 19 Northern Illinois a 44-37 victory over No. 18 Kent State in a stirring Mid-American Conference championship game Friday night.Both teams were hoping a win would boost them into the top 16 of the BCS rankings and give them a berth in one of college football’s marquee bowls. Kent State was No. 17 in those standings coming in. The Huskies were No. 21 and need an unlikely jump.Northern could pass Kent State and UCLA, which is 16th in the BCS rankings but lost the Pac-12 title game to Stanford on Friday night. Texas is 18th and plays at Kansas State on Saturday, while Boise State is 20th and plays at Nevada. But Michigan is 19th and doesn’t play at all this weekend.NIU coach Dave Doeren is still holding out hope.

“You look at the top 16 teams in the BCS, and you aren’t going to find a team that plays as consistently as we do, wins every game they are supposed to win, and plays as well as we do in every phase of the game,” Doeren said. “We got big plays on offense when we needed them tonight, we got big plays on defense, and our kicker made every kick we needed. I don’t know anyone else who brings all of that.”

The Huskies (12-1) certainly dominated for much of the night, but the Golden Flashes (11-2) tied it at 34 in the final minute of regulation.Kent State trailed 27-13 earlier in the fourth before scoring two touchdowns in a 15-second span.It was 34-all at the end of regulation, and after the teams traded field goals in the first overtime, Northern Illinois needed only two plays to reach the end zone. A 23-yard run by Akeem Daniels set up Lynch’s final TD.Kent State reached the 9, but on fourth down, Spencer Keith had to scramble to his right and throw a desperation pass that was picked off by Stone in the end zone.

“That was a great football game, but it is going to be hard for us to swallow for a few days,” Kent State coach Darrell Hazell said. “Lynch is just an extraordinary football player, and we had a lot of trouble tackling him. We’re not the first team he’s done that against.”

Northern Illinois won its second straight MAC title, the first team to do that since Central Michigan in 2006-07.Lynch threw for 212 yards and ran for 160, but it almost wasn’t enough. Northern Illinois’ three previous trips to the MAC title game were decided in the final minute, and this one took even longer.Down by two touchdowns, Kent State rallied in stunning fashion. Keith’s 5-yard touchdown run with 4:53 remaining in the fourth quarter capped a 96-yard drive. Then Lynch fumbled on what looked like a botched exchange with Daniels, and Zack Hitchens picked up the ball for the Golden Flashes and went 22 yards to the end zone.Lynch weaved his way to a 9-yard touchdown run with 3:12 remaining, but Kent State again had an answer. Keith scrambled to his left and threw a 19-yard scoring pass to Tim Erjavec with 44 seconds to play.It was the first MAC championship game to go to overtime – a thrilling finish for a league that doesn’t always get much attention. This year’s title game had more at stake because of the BCS implications, and the league embraced a Twitter-friendly buzzword that seemed particularly appropriate Friday night.

“I love the word `MACtion’ that everyone is using,” Doeren said. “You’ve got great teams and great coaches in this league – we prove that every year – and we just went out with a huge target on our backs and won every game. That’s a great accomplishment.”

The Huskies haven’t lost to a MAC opponent since Oct. 1, 2011. Their only defeat this season was against Iowa in the season opener.With Northern Illinois leading 17-13 in the third quarter Friday, Lynch led the Huskies on a 10-play, 75-yard drive and capped it with a 1-yard touchdown run. The highlight of that drive was Lynch’s 44-yard run to the Kent State 4. On the play, Lynch broke the major-college record for yards rushing by a quarterback in a single season. He finished the game with 1,771 yards. The previous mark was 1,702 by Michigan’s Denard Robinson in 2010.The Golden Flashes got off to the start they wanted, taking a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. But that was a bit deceiving. Kent State’s touchdown came after A.J. Sebastiano fumbled on a punt return, giving the Golden Flashes the ball at the 22. Dri Archer’s 15-yard scoring run made it 7-0.Kent State took advantage of a short field again after a Northern Illinois punt bounced backward and was downed at the NIU 36. Freddy Cortez kicked a 37-yard field goal.It was all Huskies for the rest of the half. They tied it at 10 on a 14-yard pass from Lynch to Martel Moore in the second quarter. Dechan Durante then made an acrobatic interception, reaching over receiver Chris Humphrey to pick off Keith’s pass near the sideline.Northern drove 58 yards in 12 plays and took a 17-10 lead on a 1-yard touchdown run by Daniels.NIU outgained Kent State 245-50 in the half and 524-260 for the game.

Recent MAC Championship results
Year     Result
2011     NIU 23, Ohio 20
2010     Miami (OH) 26, NIU 21
2009     C. Michigan 20, Ohio 10
2008     Buffalo 42, Ball State 24
2007     C. Michigan 35, Miami (OH) 10
2006     C. Michigan 31, Ohio 10

AUBURN—Cleveland Melvin scored 21 points and made a steal and two free throws late to lift DePaul to an 80-76 victory over Auburn Friday night in the SEC/Big East Challenge.Melvin swiped a pass from Rob Chubb as the Tigers tried to set up for at least a tying basket. He drove for a layup with 13 seconds left but was fouled by Noel Johnson and put the game away for the Blue Demons (4-3). Brandon Young scored 19 points and had five assists for DePaul, which has won two straight games.Melvin made 9 of 13 free-throw attempts and had 10 rebounds to follow up a 30-point game against Fairfield. Worrel Clahar hit two second-half 3-pointers and had 11 points.Frankie Sullivan scored a career-high 28 points for Auburn (2-5), which has lost four in a row. Chubb had 17 points and 13 rebounds.Sullivan, who had 20 first-half points, also dished out five assists. He made his first four 3-pointers before missing his last three against a trapping, pressing defense that frequently denied him the ball in the second half.Johnson added 10 points.DePaul shot 50 percent (12 of 24) in the second half to overcome a 19 of 33 performance from the free-throw line.The Tigers went cold as the Blue Demons turned up the defensive heat, making just 12 of 31 shots (38.7 percent) after halftime.Johnson hit two 3-pointers to tie the game at 72 with 3:33 left.Then Melvin hit 1 of 2 free throws and Clahar drilled a 3-pointer with 2:15 to play. Auburn twice cut it to two points after that, the second time on a Sullivan drive with a minute left.The Blue Demons pushed the ball across midcourt before calling timeout. Young drove along the baseline and fired a pass to the opposite side to Melvin, who missed a 3-pointer.He made sure DePaul got the ball back before Auburn could attempt a shot, when Chubb got caught with the ball around the 3-point line.Auburn had led 46-42 at halftime after Sullivan made two technical foul free throws with a minute left. Young had made a 3-pointer but then was called for a technical for taunting Auburn students.