spanky wrote:
Former NIU/NFL player's response to Herbstreit losing his shit on national TV last night:
Dear Mr. Kirk Herbstreit: I want to thank you for giving my former team extra fuel to propel them through the next month into the New Year. I’m glad you gave your opinion on the situation on live television. Most people won’t get a chance to make a rebuttal on that size stage, but I thought that maybe I could reach you this way. I can understand that some teams feel like they got squeezed out of a BCS game, but the facts are that those are the rules. Northern Illinois didn’t do anything wrong, in fact, they did everything right – on and off the field. I find it extremely unfair and unprofessional that you have a knee jerk reaction and trash a team that has been waiting for their moment for over a decade. Your opinion that “no one even knew they were playing” is a “sad state” of reporting. This team has been one of the most dominant in the MAC over the past several years – I can assure you that everyone in the area has been paying attention. Sure, we don’t get the national spotlight often, but for you to call the situation a “joke” when we finally do is disgusting, in my opinion. The NIU students, athletes, coaches, administrators and fans are extremely proud of the team and the program they have built over the past decade. Win or lose, the Huskies are going to bring their best and show the nation what we are about. If it were up to me, I would show the clip of your rant about 5 minutes before kick off. Finally, just to bring you up to speed, in 2014, NIU would've gotten a BCS 2.0 invitation as well, because it's the highest-ranked of the Group of Five conference champ.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Ryan Diem
NIU ’97-‘00
Indianapolis Colts ’01-‘11
Glad NIU is playing in the Orange Bowl.
I got $50 that says they don't cover the spread.
It reminds me of the Packer/other ESPN college BB guy rant from a few years ago after the tournament announcement. They were proven wrong.
FSU is nothing spectuacular. They had to pull one out of their ass to beat 6-7 GT to get into the BCS. 16 points is a big spread and the recent history of teams covering big spreads (double digits) in bowl games is not very good.
I'm sure I'll be drunk by the time the game starts so I'll throw down bigger than I should on NIU. If this gets over 17, pound it.