I love tickers.

You know, those things with text that run on the bottom of the screen. It doesn’t matter what the ticker has in it, I love them.

News, weather, stock quotes and even ones in Spanish — even though I don’t know how to read a lick of Spanish. Yes, there’s just something about text moving at the bottom of my screen that grabs and holds my attention.

My favorite information to read in scrolling form is sports. Just the other night I was watching ESPN and I saw a yellow block of text named ‘Bowls’ slowly approach the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

I didn’t think anything of it at first, I was just going about my normal routine of reading information in an mesmerizing, eye controlling, fashion. But then I saw it.

‘San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl TCU vs. Northern Illinois December 19, 2006 8 p.m. ESPN2.

I can’t tell you what text followed this statement. I didn’t care. The only thing I could focus on was TCU vs. Northern Illinois.

Why wasn’t it TCU vs. NIU, or Texas Christian vs. Northern Illinois? Why was this statement scrolling at the bottom of my TV: TCU vs. Northern Illinois?

And then it hit me. While NIU has running back Garrett Wolfe, TCU had LaDainian Tomlinson.

NIU is going to its second bowl game in a decade; TCU is going to its eighth in the last ten years.

The facts continued to pile up. Texas Christian University had earned the recognition to be called TCU. The nation has an understanding of this acronym.

NIU would just have caused even more “huh’s” to national ESPN enthusiasts than reading Northern Illinois.

But then I saw the light. Actually, my light bulb in my room suddenly was brighter because the heat in my apartment had just shut off, but, nonetheless, I saw the light.

This game could be the chance for Northern Illinois to become NIU.

The New Orleans Bowl has opened the bowl season the last four years. In that time frame, the opening bowl has averaged a Nielsen rating of 1.51. In 2006, A Nielsen rating of 1 means that an estimated 1,102,000 television sets are tuned into the program.

This means that on average a little more than 1.5 million people tune into the first bowl game of the season.

For reference, when NIU went to the Silicon Valley Bowl in 2004 it attracted a 0.6 Nielsen rating.

So forget Michigan, Iowa, or ‘The’ Ohio State, this game is it — the biggest in school history. Bigger than any game before.

Because this time around the opponent isn’t a newly annotated Division I-A program (cough, Troy). The game isn’t going to be announced and televised like it’s two High Schools playing in the middle of the sticks.

December 19 will be the night for all the chips.

A win in this game will provide one more reason, and a big reason why Northern Illinois should become known as NIU to the nation.

That way, when Northern Illinois goes scrolling across my screen in the future it will read NIU.

Thus, keeping my eyes fixed on my beloved ticker.

Ben Gross is a NIU football beat reporter for the Northern Star.