Ypsilanti, Mich. – In the summer, I put up a simple poll on Huskiewire.com.

It was a fun question: Which team is the best in NIU history? The options were the 1983 squad, which won the school’s first Mid-American Conference championship; last year’s conference champions; the 2010 team that should have won a league title two years ago; and the 2003 squad that went 10-2 and spent eight weeks ranked in The Associated Press’ Top 25.

At the time the poll was posted, I probably would have went with the 2003 team, with its impressive nonconference wins over Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State. Not to mention that year was an extremely strong season in the MAC.