Northern Illinois to offer students free Orange Bowl tickets

Northern Illinois is offering one free ticket per student to the Orange Bowl game against Florida State. (Dave Reginek/Getty Images)

Northern Illinois University has plans to offer one free ticket per student for their Orange Bowl game against Florida State, reports the Chicago Tribune. 

Northern Illinois became the first Mid-American Conference team to qualify for a BCS bowl after posting a 12-1 record and finishing No. 15 in the final BCS standings.

The team is making their fifth straight appearance in a bowl, but also offered free tickets to those games as well. According to the ticket office, the students must pick up the tickets in Miami where the game is held. The game will be played Jan. 1.

“We want our students to be a part of it,” NIU sports information director Donna Turner said. “We’d love to see a huge group of students get down to Miami.”

The Huskies were provided 17,500 tickets which must be sold or the school will likely lose money on the unsold tickets. By Monday morning, Turner said that about 500 students had reserved tickets.