The Northern Illinois Huskies are back in a familiar place: bowl season. In 2016, Northern Illinois snapped an eight-year bowl streak, but the Huskies rebounded with a winning season and drew a matchup against Duke in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit on December 26.
NIU (8-4) will be the lone MAC team that gets to battle the Power Five in the 2017 bowl calendar. Fittingly, Rod Carey's program was one of four MAC teams to defeat a Power Five opponent this season, as it stunned Nebraska 21-17 on the road in Lincoln back in September.