Northern Illinois vs. Florida State - Orange Bowl Game: Can the Huskies Upset the Seminoles?

The Northern Illinois Huskies face off against the Florida State Seminoles New Years Day in the 2013 BCS Orange Bowl at Sun Life Stadium in Miami beginning at 8:30 p.m. EST.

The No. 15 ranked Northern Illinois (12-1, 9-2-2 ATS) and No. 12 Florida State (11-2 SU, 3-9 ATS) meet in the Orange Bowl for what many have already deemed a sure-thing blowout by Florida State. Of course, there are more than few reasons why that may not come to pass; this game could be much closer than many think.

Florida State will forever remain one of the big names in college football, but this season that's much of what's behind their continued praise on the national stage. This year has been full of disappointment for the Seminoles even without taking into account the team's failure to reach a BCS bowl, or a national championship. Much of the Seminoles' success this season looks to be a result of the team taking advantage of a particularly weak schedule. FSU has struggled against tougher teams this season. Florida State had trouble capping off its victory against Virginia Tech, had various issues against Miami and barely crawled out of its game against Georgia Tech alive in the ACC championship.

No doubt Florida State has a roster stacked with talent, but this season the team seems to be missing that intangible championship-level quality. And considering the Seminoles' hard fought, beleaguered wins over sub-par challengers, no one should count out the possibility of a Northern Illinois upset.

"We need to go win one," said FSU coach Jimbo Fisher, who is 2-0 during his tenure in bowl games. "We are excited about that and I think it's another chance for our program to grow playing on the national stage and catapult us into next year with a very experienced team coming back and a very good group of guys."

On paper the game reads like something of a David Vs. Goliath grudge match. FSU's quarterback has 66.8 percent career completions, easily the best ever for the school; senior Dustin Hopkins is the NCAA's career leader in kick scoring with 459 points; wide receiver Rashad Greene has scored twice on punt returns, five times receiving and once rushing; and Junior All-American Bjoern Werner has 23 1/2 career sacks, including 13 this season.

But NIU's drive to win could easily prove mightier than the Seminoles' stats. Part of that motivation should stem from hearing for four weeks just how little they belong, and awareness of the fact that non-BCS conferences are 5-2 in BCS games. Combine all of that with teams' evenly matched scoring average a game - NIU 40.8 and FSU 39.8 - and tonight's game could be a fierce battle to the last seconds.