With its victory over Kent State Tuesday night, NIU became bowl-eligible with six victories on the season. However, six wins won’t get the Huskies into a bowl game this year.

In order to go bowling next month, NIU will need to beat Navy Tuesday night, and will also need some help.

The MAC has three bowl tie-ins – The Motor City Bowl in Detroit, the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., and the International Bowl in Toronto.

Ball State and Central Michigan should get two of those bids, while the MAC East champion would get the third bid if it is bowl-eligible (a good possibility), even if it loses the MAC Championship game on Dec. 5.

The MAC should receive a fourth bid because some conferences might not be able to fill all of their bowl slots. For example, the Pac-10 has seven bowl slots, but might have only five bowl-eligible teams. Another Pac-10 spot would open up should Oregon State win the Pac-10, as two schools from the conference would receive BCS bids.

“We’re hopeful [to get more than three teams in bowl games], but we’re still early on,” said MAC commissioner Rick Chryst. “Each week you learn a little bit more. It does look like there will be some bowl positions that open up because conferences won’t be able to fill those slots.”

The question is whether the MAC gets a fifth bid or not. Western Michigan would be the fourth MAC team in a bowl should another spot open up.

If the MAC East champion loses Dec. 5 and doesn’t finish the season bowl-eligible, the third place MAC West team would get the last MAC bowl slot, giving the Huskies a better shot at an at-large with conferences not filling their bowl slots.

The best chance for the Huskies to go bowling would be for Oregon State to win out, giving the Pac-10 two BCS berths and leaving the possibility of three Pac-10 bowl slots being unfilled.

“That‘s what‘s great about college football: you never know,” Chryst said. “My sense is anyone that gets to seven or more wins has put themselves in position [for a bowl game].”