>>Illinois Selected To Heart of Dallas Bowl
Illinois will face Louisiana Tech in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Dec. 26.
Illinois beat Penn State and Northwestern to close the season at 6-6. The Illini's defense forced five turnovers in beating the Wildcats 47-33 on the road.
Louisiana Tech (8-5) lost to Marshall 26-23 on Saturday in the Conference USA title game. The Bulldogs had won seven of their last eight games prior to that loss to the Thundering Herd.
The Bulldogs are led by quarterback Cody Sokol, the Iowa transfer who has thrown 29 TD passes, and running back Kenneth Dixon. He has rushed for 1,236 yards and 21 touchdowns.
>>ISU Rolls Northern Iowa In FCS Playoffs
Tre Roberson threw for 382 yards and four touchdowns and Marshaun Coprich become Illinois State's single-season rushing leader with his 12th-straight 100-yard game to lead the Redbirds to a 41-21 win over Northern Iowa on Saturday.
The Panthers (9-5) won the first meeting of these Missouri Valley Conference rivals 44-28 to start a five-game winning streak to make the FCS playoffs but fell behind 24-0 at halftime. The Redbirds (11-1) extended their school-record home winning streak to 13.
Illinois State, seeded fifth, goes to fourth-seeded Eastern Washington next weekend.
Roberson had two touchdown passes in the first half and Coprich ran for a score as Illinois State piled up 345 yards to 52 for Northern Iowa.
The Redbirds finished with 564 yards to UNI's 335. Coprich had 148 yards on 30 carries giving the league MVP 1,831 this season.
Cameron Meredith had seven catches for 115 yards and James O'Shaughnessy four for 105 and both had two touchdowns.
