For three roommates and self-proclaimed avid Huskies football fans, a Bowl game has been a long time coming.

To Jason Braddock, Adam Smith and Zach Alesandrini, the cost of a trip to San Jose, Calif., to see NIU play in the Silicon Valley Football Classic isn’t even a part of the equation.

No matter what, they’ll be there in person to see the Huskies’ first Bowl game since 1983.

“It could be in Italy, I’d still go,” said Smith, a junior mathematics education major. “I’ve been waiting for NIU to get into a Bowl game for a long time. It hasn’t worked for the past two years, but this year, I’m going to be there.”

Students will receive free tickets with their NIU OneCards, and the Student Association is working on plans for using a fan plane that would depart from Rockford, costing approximately $400 per passenger, SA adviser Nolan Davis said. The price that would be charged for students was talked about being $200, as of Sunday night.

“We were hoping for something like that,” said Alesandrini, a sophomore business management major of the proposed NIU-sponsored package. “We were planning on the full expenditure.”

Depending on student interest and money from student organizations, Davis said plans were in the works for a “dramatic decrease in price.”

The trio expects their individual budgets to be between $600 and $800 for two nights.

“It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Braddock, a sophomore elementary education major. “We may not ever get a chance like this again, so we might as well take it.”

Plane tickets on priceline.com start at $333 from Chicago to San Jose. A Motel 6 nearby the San Jose airport have two-bed rooms starting at $53.09 per night.

Alesandrini said he hoped to convince many of his friends to join him and his roommates in California.

“We need some sort of good showing so that we get more attention from the sponsors of Bowl games in the future,” he said. “Hopefully, we won’t have to wait 30 years for the next one.”

Bowl matchups

Wyndham New Orleans Bowl

North Texas vs. Southern Miss

Champs Sports Bowl

Syracuse vs. Georgia Tech

GMAC Bowl

Memphis vs. Bowling Green

PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl

Cincinnati vs. Marshall

Las Vegas Bowl

UCLA vs. Wyoming

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl

Hawaii vs. UAB

MPC Computers Bowl

Fresno State vs. Virginia

Motor City Bowl

Toledo vs. Connecticut

Independence Bowl

Iowa State vs. Miami-Ohio

Insight Bowl

Oregon State vs. Notre Dame

EV1.net Houston Bowl

Colorado vs. UTEP

MasterCard Alamo Bowl

Ohio State vs.Oklahoma State

Continental Tire Bowl

Boston College vs. North Carolina

Emerald Bowl Bowl

Navy vs. New Mexico

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl

Texas Tech vs. Cal

Silicon Valley Football Classic

NIU vs. Troy

Gaylords Hotels Music City Bowl

Alabama vs. Minnesota

Vitalis Sun Bowl

Arizona State vs. Purdue

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Louisville vs. Boise State

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl

Miami vs. Florida

Outback Bowl

Georgia vs. Wisconsin

SBC Cotton Bowl

Texas A&M vs. Tennessee

Toyota Gator Bowl

West Virginia vs. Florida State

Capital One Bowl

Iowa vs. LSU

Rose Bowl

Michigan vs. Texas

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

Utah vs. Pittsburgh

Nokia Sugar Bowl

Auburn vs. Virginia Tech

FedEx Orange Bowl

USC vs. Oklahoma