DeKALB – The news of Northern Illinois’ postseason football future, announced Sunday night, didn’t take long to spread across campus.

NIU’s Jan. 1 Orange Bowl date with Florida State coupled with the opinion of ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit – who referred to the Huskies’ selection as “an absolute joke” – turned out to be enough to ignite students on social media.

“Facebook just blew up and it’s all everyone’s been talking about ,” said Joe Themig, an NIU student from Decatur. “It’s really exciting – it’s kind of surprising because I didn’t know if we could get into that kind of bowl, but the chips kind of fell the right way.