DeKALB | Year after year, new and current students arrive in DeKalb for the fall semester in anticipation of seeing the Huskie football team strengthen its growing national appeal.

It looked promising at the beginning with Garrett Wolfe grabbing national headlines. But it was all a mirage.

An underachieving offensive line, a quarterback controversy, an erratic defense and a hamstring-plagued Wolfe have helped put the Huskies out of contention for the MAC West title.

Despite all that, there are three reasons why you should be a proud fan of Huskie athletics this year: men’s soccer, women’s soccer and volleyball.

Okay, okay. I know what your thinking — it’s not like they can draw the usual tailgate crazies and pack over 20,000 into a stadium. But they can be nationally ranked and win MAC division titles.

The men’s soccer team won its first ever MAC championship after beating Akron on Nov. 5. The Huskies beat Loyola this past weekend in the first round of the NCAA tournament and will now get the chance to beat a powerhouse in No. 7 seed Indiana on Wednesday.

Would you have guessed that we have a fall sports team in the top 25? Sorry, not the football team this year. It’s our soccer team that has surprised the nation by beating Wisconsin and claiming the No. 19 spot.

Plus MAC officials noticed the success of our soccer team and awarded head coach Steve Simmons as the MAC Coach of the Year and junior-transfer forward Marcus McCarty was selected as MAC Newcomer of the Year.

Then there is the women’s soccer team. All it did was make it to the MAC championship game. The Huskies lost by one measly goal to Toledo, but they weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.

With only one senior on the roster, the team is sure to make some noise in the coming years.

And don’t forget about the volleyball team and its 20-8, 13-3 MAC record. This team has NIU legends playing for it in senior middle blocker Kate McCullagh, who posted her school record-breaking 1,908th career kill during Saturday’s win over Buffalo, and senior libero Gina Guide, who holds the school record for career digs.

So the football team didn’t live up to its preseason hype as MAC champs. Who cares? Our other three sports are picking up their slack in a historical way. Pay attention to these teams in the upcoming days and weeks because they are putting NIU on the map for something other than football.