Northern Illinois @ Miami (Ohio) preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 24, 2009 ) Northern Illinois 27, Miami (Ohio) 22

Northern Illinois has been the best team in the Mid-American Conference all season. Now the Huskies have to go out and prove it one more time to become champions.

After a perfect run through the conference in the regular season, No. 23 Northern Illinois looks for its first MAC championship in 27 years when it takes on Miami-Ohio in the Mid-American Conference Championship game Friday at Detroit's Ford Field.

The Huskies (10-2, 8-0 MAC West) are in the title game for the first time since 2005, when they lost a heartbreaking game, 31-30 to Akron. Riding a nine-game winning streak, Northern Illinois is trying to win its first MAC title since 1983 under coach Bill Mallory.

Northern Illinois closed the regular season with a 71-3 victory at Eastern Michigan to become just the fourth team in program history to win 10 games in a season and first since 2003. The 2010 Huskies are also the first team in school history to finish the season undefeated in MAC play.

Ranked for the first time in seven years, the Huskies have been running roughshod over its opponents. Northern Illinois is seventh in the FBS in rushing yards per game at 279.2 and is led by tailback Chad Spann, who has scored a touchdown in 11 straight games and has 48 for his career. Spann ranks 16th in the country with 1,239 rushing yards and picked up 88 and two touchdowns last week, as the Huskies rushed for 544 yards eight touchdowns.

Northern Illinois’ defense has been impressive as well and led the MAC, giving up just 18.5 points per game.

While Northern Illinois has been dominant, Miami-Ohio has had an improbable run to the title game after winning three games in the past two years. The RedHawks went 1-11 in 2009 in coach Michael Haywood’s first season.

Miami-Ohio (8-4, 7-1 East) is just the third team in the 64-year history of the MAC to go from worst to first. The RedHawks finished last in the east a season ago at 1-7 and this year clinched the East Division on the last weekend of the regular season as Kent State knocked off Ohio to hand Miami-Ohio the spot in the title game.

The RedHawks have won four straight and are coming off a 23-3 victory over Temple that kept their title hopes alive. Miami is in the MAC title game for the first time since 2007, and the RedHawks last won the conference crown in 2003.

The series is tied 7-7 between the schools with Northern Illinois having won the last five including a 27-22 victory last season.