NIU Athletics will reward each student who attended all NIU home football games for the Mission 6 initiative with a $100 tuition credit, an invitation to the Huskie Bowl and two season tickets to NIU football.

The Mission 6 initiative debuted for the 2015 football season with the goal to have at least 6,000 NIU students at each of the Huskies’ six home football games. The students who attended every game and stayed for the whole game were eligible to win free tuition for the spring 2016 semester, according to the NIU Alumni Association website.

Because the attendance did not reach 6,000 students at each game, the students who came to each home football game were not eligible for the tuition waiver.

“After consultation with our director of Athletics, the decision was made to reward each individual student that attended all six home games during the 2015 NIU football season,” said Morris White, assistant athletic director for Marketing and Game Experience, in a Monday news release.

The students who were eligible have been invited to the Huskie Bowl on April 22 where they will be seated in the Yordon Center terrace, in the north end zone, and food will be provided by NIU Athletics. Students will also receive two free football season tickets for the season following their graduation and $100 toward tuition for this semester, according to an email sent to Mission 6 candidates.

In 2015, NIU football season ticket options ranged from $99 for general public seating to a range of $232-$1,382 for premium seating, according to the NIU Athletics website.

The Illinois resident tuition fees for 14 credit hours for the spring 2016 semester is $4,732.80, according to NIU’s Office of the Bursar’s website.

“It’s a good reward, obviously it’s not the free tuition that we were all hoping for, but with this reward everyone is a winner,” said Isaiah Booker, sophomore community leadership and civic engagement major and one of the 86 eligible students.

Booker said he found out via Facebook that NIU Athletics would not be awarding the free tuition.

“I thought that it was handled really unprofessionally, because I think that many students were not aware that 6,000 students were required to be at each home game for the tuition waiver to be given out,” Booker said. “I feel like they could have done a better job of publicizing that.”

White said he expects all the students to be reached by the end of the week.

“We will continue to improve our communication with our students to ensure there is no confusion around our promotions moving forward,” White said in the news release. “At the end of the day, we are all on the same team and want to make every student’s experience, here at NIU, a memorable one.”