Controversy!NCAA Football

An Orange Bowl Rep Allegedly Told An NIU Official They Didn’t Belong In The Orange Bowl

Northern Illinois has been the ugly stepsister of the BCS since bowl matchups were announced about a month ago. Everyone and their mothers has done nothing but rip NIU for achieving their BCS bowl bid, even though they did nothing but play well enough to be beneficiaries of a silly loophole in a silly system. But here’s one of the more intriguing NIU haters: an Orange Bowl rep.

A few days ago in a hospitality suite (where college football bigwigs do nothing but get drunk and yell at each other), an Orange Bowl rep allegedly told an NIU rep, “You guys [NIU] don’t even deserve to be here. We didn’t even want you here.”

Well look, nobody’s really happy NIU is playing in one of the grand poo-bahs of CFB bowls, but a representative of the game itself probably shouldn’t be one of those people, or should at least have the tact to not make such sentiment public. And as far as accuracy goes, Florida State had a 17-10 lead over NIU in the third quarter, so you can’t say the game is a total wash. And if NIU winds up winning, a whole bunch of people are going to look mighty silly.

Anyway, the conversation got kind of heated after that. Here’s more from CBS Sports:

According to a source, the exchange took place the other night in a hospitality suite. The Orange Bowl rep had compared NIU to Duke, the source said, and the NIU rep responded by pointing out that the Huskies, who are riding a 12-game winning streak, have been to bowl games in five consecutive seasons. The conversation escalated from there, the source said.

Comparing NIU to Duke? Now that’s just plain rough.

[CBS Sports via Dr. Saturday, Getty Images]

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