The Northern Illinois Huskies will join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only affiliate beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. It is not yet known which conference the remainder of NIU’s sports will join but the focus has been on football due to being the main driving force for revenue. The reports first surfaced in September 2024 with NIU and Toledo both seen as football-only possibilities for the MW but it eventually narrowed to include only NIU by the end of 2024.
I did not like the idea of NIU and Toledo because it didn’t solve the full membership problem that the MW had at the time. Quite a bit has changed since then with the MW adding Grand Canyon (no football), Hawaii, UTEP, and UC Davis as full members (UC Davis football will remain in the FCS and Big Sky). Even without NIU, the Mountain West had 10 full members and 8 football-playing members for the 2026-27 academic year. Have my thoughts changed since then? Let’s take a look at some talking points for both the Mountain West and NIU.
The Bottom Line
Usually, this is the last part of an article but when it comes to Division 1 football realignment we can’t ignore the obvious. Both the Mountain West and NIU think the move as a football-only member makes sense from a revenue standpoint, something NIU said in its report for Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting and reiterated again in its press release. The revenue underpins the entire reasoning behind the move even if there are other factors at play.
Travel Footprint
The travel footprint in the MAC vs the Mountain West will undoubtedly be different but the football-only aspect is key for NIU. Below are two charts showing NIU’s membership in the MAC and MW with NIU in red. For the MAC, Massachusetts is joining in all sports beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The longest distance NIU would travel in the MAC is to Amherst, Massachusetts, which is about 830 miles. The longest distance for NIU in the Mountain West is to Honolulu, Hawaii, which is roughly 4,200 miles. At face value, this is a terrible idea because the Honolulu trip would be every other year compared to the Amherst trek once every 4 years.
The key is that NIU is getting more money in the Mountain West simply on football alone but with UMass as a full member of the MAC, that means several teams would have to travel to Amherst each academic year for multiple conference sports. One caveat: we don’t know which conference NIU will join for the remainder of its sports and the MAC remains an option according to NIU’s announcement. Given all the possible options (Horizon, MVC, OVC, Summit League), NIU would likely see some cost savings by having more bus trips (i.e. fewer expensive flights)… but this part of the analysis becomes mostly null and void if they stay in the MAC for all sports other than football.
The Chicago Market
When it comes to realignment, major media markets are typically cited as to why a school is desirable. NIU is in the Chicago media market so there are some benefits for the Mountain West but some perspective is needed. Being in the Chicago area means plenty of competition from other college teams like Northwestern but also it’s the heart of Big Ten country. Then there’s this school in South Bend that’s only a little bit of a ratings draw in Chicagoland and the US but I’m sure ol’ NIU will crush them on TV! In all seriousness, NIU isn’t going to be drawing huge TV numbers and I didn’t even mention the professional sports options available, which are far more convenient for most people in Chicagoland. Still, the Mountain West having a foothold in the Chicago area, even a small one, can provide benefits for the conference marketing and recruiting aspects, and, yes, even provide a small rating boost.
The real draw of NIU is the Central time zone. It will give the Mountain West a chance to stagger games from 11 AM to 12 AM across Central, Mountain, Pacific, and Hawaiian time zones without drastic matchup problems. It’s not like Big Ten, which had a Pacific team (UCLA) play the early game in the Eastern time zone at Noon (Rutgers) in 2024 due to the number of teams causing scheduling variations. The UCLA-Rutgers game drew 426K viewers on FS1 compared to Wisconsin-Northwestern, which drew 502K viewers in the same time slot on BTN. No, NIU and the MW won’t have those viewership numbers for a Noon ET slot on Saturday but fans of the Mountain West shouldn’t have to worry about which conference matchup to watch. NIU will have four home games against MW opponents each year and there’s no reason the conference can’t have games spread out each Saturday with only 9 football teams, especially if they have one game on Thursday or Friday night.
Midweek Games
The MAC has had midweek conference games dating back to the 1999 season but that could be a partial reason for NIU wanting to join the Mountain West. While TV revenue is crucial for D1 schools, gate revenues can be important as well. NIU has seen a noticeable drop in attendance since the MAC went to multiple midweek games in 2011. The MAC as a whole has struggled with attendance as noted in this piece during the 2023 season by Sportico. It should be noted that the Mountain West does play some games Thursday and Friday night games so NIU may not be completely exempt from weeknight conference home games. However, it isn’t on Tuesday and Wednesday nights so NIU won’t be subject to multiple occurrences of early week games every season.
There is some merit to the attendance argument and the figures provided below show how the attendance has fallen for NIU despite several MAC Championship seasons. It’s not completely fair to say that midweek games are the sole reason for the attendance drop because the midweek games are usually no more than two in a season, which doesn’t explain the season-long drop. Another possible reason for falling attendance is the long-term trend of fewer students, a problem that may worsen with the enrollment cliff. As the meeting report stated, NIU sees the jump to the MW as a way to boost TV and gate revenues compared to what they’ve received in the MAC. And no sport gets more eyeballs than football as NIU found out when they defeated Notre Dame on the road in September 2024. We’ll see what the next TV contract brings in terms of revenue and TV time slots for the Mountain West and NIU.
The Downsides
No realignment move is without drawbacks and NIU to the Mountain West is no exception. The obvious drawback is that NIU will pay a $2 million entrance fee to the Mountain West that will go to “…support the transition to the MWC, including travel, staffing, rebranding, and exit fees…” NIU anticipates a one-year “ramp-up” period before hitting maximum revenues in the Mountain West. According to the MAC’s Handbook from the 2022-23 academic year (page 81), NIU will pay an exit fee of $2.5 million and forfeit its revenue distribution for the 2025-26 academic year. There is also a 24-month notice requirement in the handbook with a $50,000 per month fee for each month less than the 24-month notice. Based on NIU’s announcement and timeline of 18 months until they join the MW, let’s assume those fees are $300,000 for the 6 months the MAC “lost” due to a late announcement. We can’t rule out the possibility of legal action and those associated fees either.
Perhaps all the exit fees are a factor as to why NIU is considering remaining in the MAC. The MAC Handbook (Page 99) states that full members will have the following core sports: “Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball and Volleyball”. It doesn’t sound like NIU would qualify as a full member but that’s why I brought up the possibility of legal action. These realignment divorces can get messy.
Secondly, the Mountain West that NIU is joining today won’t be the same conference it joins in 2026-27. The strength of the conference will be changing as Boise State and others head for the Pac-12. On one hand, that’s good for NIU because they won’t have as tough a road to contend in the conference. On the other hand, the “new” MW won’t be perceived as strong as the current iteration and that is bad news when it comes to the Playoff, which is another path to higher revenue.
Furthermore, there are questions about the long-term viability of this move. For starters, UC Davis will likely move its football team up to the FBS in the future. How will that impact NIU as a football-only affiliate? Having 10 football members by the end of the decade if UC Davis joins doesn’t sound ridiculous in this megaconference era but realignment has been ruthless for some programs. NIU is making the best choice for themselves right now but in 5 or 10 years when the next realignment shuffle happens, NIU might be on the outside looking in. If that happens and NIU is looking to move all sports to a single conference again, will the primary focus on football end up hurting or helping? I can’t say for certain what the next realignment shakeup looks like and neither can NIU, which is why they felt the best time to move is now.
Summary
The Mountain West and Northern Illinois feel this arrangement will be beneficial for both parties. The Mountain West sees NIU as an established FBS team that has seen high levels of success over the last 15 years and a team that might even help the conference receive a better TV contract in the future. At the same time, the agreement allows the Mountain West to claim a footprint in the Chicagoland area while rounding out its football membership at 9 teams. For NIU, the MW will be a step up on the G6 football ladder and they will ostensibly receive higher TV and ticket revenues in the MW compared to the MAC. NIU believes any costs over the next year or two are outweighed by the chance to move up in the FBS world.
I didn’t like the initial September 2024 reports of NIU and Toledo as football-only affiliates in the Mountain West because they didn’t fulfill the MW’s full membership requirements. In early 2025, the move is a bit more sensible. Having 9 football teams allows for an 8-game conference schedule and the move seems more beneficial for NIU than the Mountain West on paper but it’s not perfect. The long-term viability is the biggest concern for NIU (doesn’t every team and conference have that long-term concern?) while the ultimate destination of the school’s other sports cannot be ignored. Staying in the MAC doesn’t seem like the optimal choice for NIU’s non-football sports but that’s why I’m here writing about realignment.
I will concede that the move doesn’t “feel right” from a traditional point of view. The MAC and NIU seemed like a good fit and there was something great about the MAC not being impacted by realignment. The thing is… realignment is long past the point of “logical” changes especially when the almighty TV revenue is the sole driving force. It was only a matter of time before those forces worked their way to the MAC’s core membership and now Northern Illinois will opt for the Mountain West in football. This is the world of college athletics and that’s why NIU leaving the MAC to go (Mountain) West.
Photo Courtesy of NIU Athletics