Two days after three MAC teams upset ranked teams, MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst called Saturday one of the biggest days in the conference’s history.

“Heading into the weekend we had a sense our teams would compete well,” said Chryst, in a press release. “But I don’t know if we ever have had a concentration of games on one day like [Saturday]. We’ve had teams spring upsets, but to have so many on one day against elite opponents doesn’t happen often.”

NIU continues to get big headlines after its upset of No. 21 (Associated Press) Alabama.

“Right now, we’re fighting like the devil to get respect for our league,” NIU coach Joe Novak said. “A few weeks ago I said Maryland was our biggest win, but this has to be. When you talk about Alabama, you’re talking about one of the best. This is a win we’ll never forget.”

The pollsters haven’t forgotten either, giving NIU its highest ranking ever at No. 20 in the AP.

CBS SportsLine.com went as far as to give NIU a No. 15 ranking in the nation and No. 1 for non-Bowl Championship Series schools.

The Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune also have gone out of their way to give NIU credit on their main sports pages in Monday’s paper. Sun-Times’ columnist Mark Brown, a Northern Star alumnus, even devoted his entire page 2 column to the Huskies and their success, which is raising the level of the school.