(WSCR) Kirk Herbstreit’s harsh criticism of NIU in the wake of the school’s first BCS bowl berth isn’t sitting well with one prominent alumnus.

Former Colts offensive tackle Ryan Diem isn’t happy that Herbstreit refereed to his alma mater’s Orange Bowl bid as a “joke” and declared the bid “a sad state for college football.”

Diem took to Twitter on Monday to personally write Herbstreit and explain his displeasure.

Dear Mr. Kirk Herbstreit: I want to thank you for giving my former team extra fuel to propel them through the next month into the New Year. I’m glad you gave your opinion on the situation on live television. Most people won’t get a chance to make a rebuttal on that size stage, but I thought that maybe I could reach you this way. I can understand that some teams feel like they got squeezed out of a BCS game, but the facts are that those are the rules. Northern Illinois didn’t do anything wrong, in fact, they did everything right – on and off the field. I find it extremely unfair and unprofessional that you have a knee jerk reaction and trash a team that has been waiting for their moment for over a decade. Your opinion that “no one even knew they were playing” is a “sad state” of reporting. This team has been one of the most dominant in the MAC over the past several years – I can assure you that everyone in the area has been paying attention. Sure, we don’t get the national spotlight often, but for you to call the situation a “joke” when we finally do is disgusting, in my opinion. The NIU students, athletes, coaches, administrators and fans are extremely proud of the team and the program they have built over the past decade. Win or lose, the Huskies are going to bring their best and show the nation what we are about. If it were up to me, I would show the clip of your rant about 5 minutes before kick off. Finally, just to bring you up to speed, in 2014, NIU would’ve gotten a BCS 2.0 invitation as well, because it’s the highest-ranked of the Group of Five conference champ.