WHY AREN'T WE TWENTY POINTS AHEAD?

Two weeks ago, Touchdown Jesus blessed Victor E. Huskie's latest dog bone.

Over the weekend, Northern Illinois hosted Buffalo at Huskie Stadium.  At halftime, the home team enjoyed a 14-3 lead.  It's a sixty minute game, and what happened next gave Red State's Brad Slager another moment of mayhem.  "Two weeks ago, Northern Illinois shocked the nation by beating Notre Dame on the road, sealing the win with a blocked field goal. This week, they hosted underdog Buffalo which tied the game on a desperation toss and then locked the win in overtime – by blocking a field goal attempt."  Oh, and somehow the Rose Bowl mooshed up into September with Michigan beating USC.  Thus did Northern Illinois go from ranked twenty-third in the Associated Press poll to receiving no votes, whilst the football coaches weren't that impressed with the win two weeks ago, sparing them the ignominy of "others receiving votes" there.

I cribbed the title of my post from a Hillary Clinton lament of eight years ago, with much of the video now having been scrubbed.  That was inspired by repeated observations from the Northern Illinois broadcast booth about yards gained, time of possession, first downs registered, all the other statistics for losers.  Late in the game, secure a first and goal, fail to score a touchdown, kick the game-tying field goal, that's not impressive.  Nor should the outcome be any surprise.  We're talking about the Mid-American.

The end of November is time for the Mid-American Conference football championship game, in Detroit's Ford Field.  Once again, Northern Illinois represent the West Division.

The opponent was Buffalo, and the smart money had Buffalo as a prohibitive favorite.

For fifty-eight minutes and thirty seconds, the smart money looked right.

The game lasts sixty minutes.

Perhaps the football-related buzz around aspiring collegians will diminish.

After their stunning win against a ranked Notre Dame football team, NIU has received more attention than ever due to their win on the national stage.

“It’s huge,” said NIU Senior James Bennett “Yeah, it’s the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve been able to go on social media and see people talking about NIU all the time.”

Vibes on campus have stayed electric in the wake of victory. Students said the win was big for the whole university.

‘It’s pretty sick. It’s been awesome to see the eyes going to our program and just the school as a whole and the people care about us and like what we’re doing is is awesome,” said Bennett.

“I have complete strangers that come up to me when I’m wearing an NIU shirt and just want to say Go Huskies or I just want to say congratulations to the team,” said NIU’s Vice President for Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications Sol Jensen.

Jensen said the win has affected the college’s social media presence and the university’s future.

“We’ve seen ticket sales going up,” said Jensen. “And we have recruitment events as well and we’ve been able to see an enormous increase of students that want to come to our next recruitment event.”

Band Directors also anticipate the win will bring more eyes and ears to how they play alongside the football team.

“Even our band directors are like, oh, because we’re now officially ranked more people are going to be paying attention to us,” said NIU band member Omar Ojeda. “So we do have to put in more effort as well. It’s nice knowing that people are more likely going to be seeing what we do here.”

“A lot of people are just super excited to see the Huskies play, especially now that they’re nationally ranked,” said Jensen.

There are a lot of people who root against Notre Dame, and that sort of admiration might continue.  The music programs are solid, and enrollments for a music or music education degree ought continue.

Why, then, did I write "buzz will diminish?"  Let's think about that Orange Bowl bid from a dozen years ago.  The deanlets responsible for student recruitment hoped for a bountiful harvest thereafter.  I had doubts.

Northern Illinois University is a largish ethnically Catholic, state-supported (the more jaded will say state-tolerated or state-hampered) university outside the metropolitan Chicago area, without benefit of commuter trains. Football-inspired enrollment in quest of beer-'n-circus may not be best for our campus.

It matters, though, that we get it right. There are a lot more students enrolled in upwardly mobile Compass Point State universities than there are in the Ivies, or the Catholic institutions with or without basketball or football, or in the state flagships. Notionally, the policy within each state is to ensure a place somewhere in the state university system to graduates in good standing of the high schools in the states, and the upwardly mobile and converted teachers' colleges ought not be viewed as consolation prizes for high school seniors who didn't make the cut at their state's flagship institution. The athletic department might view football as the front porch to the university. What goes on in the kitchen and the rumpus room and the study also matters.

As I was heading into retirement, my doubts were confirmed.

The Orange Bowl appearance has boosted applications, although I have private information that many of those applicants aren't up to our standards.

To move further in the beer-'n-circus direction risks turning out graduates that wind up underemployed with a lot of debt.  But hey, did they have fun at the tailgating area and in the stands.

National attention or not, it is better that the music programs continue to be solid.