The rules of the BCS mandated Northern Illinois get the slot. This is the same rule that Boise State could never get the stars to align correctly for. You can thank Wisconsin, I believe.
Umm, nope! You can thank the Ohio State University for violating NCAA rules and former OSU coach Jim Tressel for not reporting it to the NCAA & lying about it which caused OSU's probation, bowl ban & removal from the BCS ranking system.
You can also thank the Penn State University leadership for hiding & lying about former Asst. Coach Jerry Sandusky's pedophilic adventures on the Penn St. campus. This cost Penn State a probation, bowl ban & removal from the BCS ranking system.
Perhaps you can even thank the University of Nebraska for their matador rushing defense, but I think Wisconsin would have obliterated any SEC team (and most NFL teams) with the offensive game plan and execution they exhibited on Saturday night.
NIU earned their BCS spot by going undefeated in MAC conference play - which is better quality than Big LEast conference play and about on par with ACC conference play.
Actually, you should thank the University of Arkansas for abandoning the old Southwest Conference for the SEC. That single event upset the balance of college football conferences across the country and led to all of the current bad ideas in college football - the demise of the Southwest Conference, conference expansion, conference realignments, conference division alignments, conference championship games, the start of the BCS system, the modification of the flawed BCS, its replacement with an even worse BCS system, the end of most conference bowl alignments, famine and plagues, fire from the skies, cats and dogs living together, etc.
Suhey Pig indeed!