Editor’s note: This is the eighth part in a 12-part series of an in-depth look at the 2003 NIU football team and its impact on NIU.

Success on the football field in 2003 brought benefits to NIU off the field.

“I think we had to close off applications,” said Bob Burk, NIU director of admissions. “By the first week of February we were up over 25 percent.”

Burk attributes the increase in applications to the enormous amount of positive press NIU received from its 10-2 football team.

By the first week of November 2003, NIU had 7,419 applications for the fall 2004 semester. That was an increase of 41.6 percent from the previous year at the same time.

During that week, the Huskies were 8-1, coming off a 68-23 victory over Ball State.

“We had the same type of bump [in admissions] like Northwestern had,” Burk said of when that university had a successful football team. “I was getting calls from all over the country.”

Former head coach Joe Novak remembers having a dinner at the end of the season to thank those who had helped the Huskies during the season. One person who was invited to that dinner was Burk.

“We invited Bob and I thanked him and he said thank you to me, our admissions are up because of football,” Novak said. “It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s how it works.”

On Feb. 5, 2004, NIU had 16,285 applications for the fall 2004 semester. Just five days earlier the university closed applications to new freshmen, as the number of applications was a 25.8 percent increase from the previous winter.

The 16,285 applications in February surpassed the number of applications for the 2003 school year, as NIU had 16,128 applications in August 2003. By August 2004, NIU would start the school year with 18,086 applications – a 12.1 percent increase from the year prior.

Mike Sabock, former NIU assistant coach, believes the university was also able to be more selective.

“I remember talking to Bob Burk, saying that season set us up admission wise for the next couple years,” Sabock said. “To the general public, if the school has a great football team then you have a great school.”

Those close to the football team knew that although an increase in admissions came from the football team it should not be that way.

“Yeah, we should be discussing what the physics and chemistry department are doing,” said Mike Korcek, former sports information director. “But everyone was into the game.”

When it came down to it, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, ESPN and more were not interested in covering any department at the University. These media outlets wanted to cover the Huskies, giving NIU publicity that it could not buy and gave exposure to thousands of future students.

“You can’t put a price tag on it,” Novak said. “It was great for the image of a university.”