Last year in Don Heinrich’s College Football preview, NIU was demoted to Division I-AA.

Ivan Maisel wrote an article on how he would realign the world of college football.

“Is there any sense in Akron, Cincinnati, Rutgers and Northern Illinois, all with mini-stadiums in the 30,000 region, competing in the same class as mega-seat, mega-buck Michigan, Miami and USC?”

Then NIU went 9-2 and captured some national attention and even a few votes in the national rankings. The Huskies made it as high as 26th in the UPI poll last Nov. 21. A week later they made their AP appearance at No. 34. The Sporting News placed NIU at No. 40 in their final rankings.

“Last year we broke the ice with our 9-2 record and all the national records,” Huskie Head Coach Jerry Pettibone said. “We started getting public attention because we have a quality program that merits attention.”

This year the public is standing at attention. Street & Smith’s preview ranks NIU as the No. 2 independent behind Notre Dame.

“There’s another midwestern independent eager to make its mark in the polls this year,” Robert Markus wrote. “Northern Illinois won’t be No. 1, but the Huskies feel they can crack the lower end of the top 20 after going 9-2—and bowl-less—last year.”

In its October issue, Playboy doesn’t name NIU in the top 20, but does include them as one of 10 breakthrough teams along with the likes of Penn State, Pittsburgh, Hawaii and NIU Homecoming opponent Fresno State.

Lindy’s Big Ten Football Annual includes NIU in its preseason top 30 in the “Other Teams to Watch” section.

The Huskies also received votes in the USA Today and UPI preseason polls.

“This is probably the most preseason national notoriety we’ve had since 1973,” Sports Information Director Mike Korcek said.

In 1973, fullback Mark Kellar was coming off a junior season in which he finished sixth among the nation’s rushers. He lived up to the hype and led the nation in rushing with 1,719 yards in 1973, ahead of both Tony Dorsett and Archie Griffin.

The Huskies will get a chance to show the nation what they are made of Sept. 29 at Northwestern University’s Dyche Stadium. ESPN’s cameras will be in Evanston providing the action to a potential audience of 56 million people. The game will be aired as part of the network’s six-game Big Ten package.

“We try to choose the best national game available to us,” said ESPN Communications Coordinator Diane Lamb. “NIU was 9-2 last year and we felt NIU-Northwestern would be a good competitive game.”

This will mark the third time NIU has appeared on ESPN. The Huskies defeated Cal State-Fullerton in the 1983 California Bowl 20-13 and Nevada-Las Vegas 34-31 in 1987.

Last year’s six-game Big Ten package averaged 1.2 million homes per game, according to Lamb.

“We generally choose a game that the most people will watch,” she said.

People will be watching and just might see NIU earn its first victory in five tries against the Wildcats.