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And no disrespect to NIU as 10-2 is a wonderful season, but their SOS isn't that great either. The Maryland win is nice, as is the win at Bama ... but they didn't face Miami (OH) or Marshall, so their two chances to make their case in league play came against BGSU and Toledo and neither game was that close. Did the Huskies deserve a bowl? Yes. Did they deserve one at our expense? No way. The Cats do not have to apologize to anybody for this bowl berth. As we've discussed before, it's not like Minnesota or Wisconsin in past years that were 2-6 or 3-5 in league play and got the 6 wins for a bowl through NC foes .. We were 4-4 in Big Ten play, finishing 7th in one of the top two leagues in the nation. We beat two bowl teams (one more than NIU beat) Our six losses came to teams with 12, 10, 10, 9, 9 and 7 wins (an average of 9.5 wins per team ... more than NIU's average of 9 per team). NIU can cry all they want about big leagues and big money ... and no doubt that played a role in this. They definitely have a case to be included in some bowl this year ... but whatever rationale (money, quality wins, quality losses, conference ties, etc.) Novak uses, NIU was not snubbed at our expense. Not even the BCS computers could make a case for that ... well, you never know with that crazy (and soon to be irrelevant) system. Another interesting note ... the bowls may be different in terms of payout and date, but our opponent has 10 wins (and their only losses were to 12-win Miami and 10-win OSU ... plus they beat 9-win Purdue). I'm trying to remember the records of everyone, but was USC the only one of our [previous] bowl foes who did not have double-digit [more than 10] victories?
