Humanitarian Bowl expense report shows profit for NIU

According to an expense report released by NIU media relations, the NIU football team made $50,097 of profit from its trip to Boise, Idaho for the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl.

Total revenue from the trip equaled $475,000, while the team only spent $424,903.

The profit is in sharp contrast to past bowl games. When all was said and done after the 2009 Independence Bowl loss to Louisiana Tech, the Huskies had lost $154,125. That figure, however, factored in the $420,000 worth of tickets that NIU was accountable for.

The Humanitarian Bowl’s expense report does not include a figure for tickets.

Check out tomorrow’s edition of the Northern Star for a Q&A with NIU Athletic Director Jeff Compher.

Butler released from Rockford hospital

Officials at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford confirmed on Tuesday evening that NIU linebacker Devon Butler has been released as a patient.

Butler was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound sustained on April 5 while visiting friends at 1009 Aspen Court.

The shots were fired from a car allegedly driven by Mark Orozco and Richard Van Arsdale III.

UMASS expected to join the Mid-American Conference

An announcement is expected from the Mid-American Conference today that will officially add the University of Massachusetts’ football program to the MAC.

The press conference is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. central in Gillette Stadium’s Media Workroom in Foxboro, Mass. Gillette Stadium is home of the NFL’s New England Patriots.

The move would mean the Minutemen, currently members of the FCS, would be elevated to FBS status. UMASS would give both the MAC Eastern and Western divisions seven teams, if the Minutemen joined the East.

It is presumed that UMASS would not start playing MAC games until 2012, because the 2011 schedule has already been drawn up.