Northern Illinois is joining the Mountain West conference in football only starting in 2026. It isn’t clear yet what conference their other sports will play in.
Mike Nolan
It seems like a strange move as I would guess the money is similar.
Living in Chicagoland I obviously encounter a lot of NIU grads so I will have to assess their loss of rivalries.
NIU was always the odd man out as the Ohio and Michigan schools schools have a in-state rival within the conference.
They did sneak up on the Evil Empire and win, so maybe a new conference will give them more cred?
Go B1GCats
rsl
According to one report they are staying in the MAC for everything else. The money is substantially higher in the MWC which is why they’re willing to pay $2 mil to get in.
Their travel costs are going up, too. They were the western-most member of the MAC, they’ll be the eastern-most member of the MWC, by a lot!