DeKALB – After nearly four decades in the Mid-American Conference and months of speculation regarding its future, NIU appears poised to join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member.
According to the agenda for Tuesday’s special meeting of the NIU Board of Trustees, the school has officially accepted an invite to join the Mountain West as an affiliate member in football. The trustees will meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss and approve $2 million to pay the conference’s required membership fee, which would be payable in six annual installments of $333,333.35. The university has recommended that the BOT approve the funds to pay the membership fee.
“Conference realignment has become a reality in intercollegiate athletics,” the agenda reads. “In addition to providing the university with additional revenue, the move to the MWC will allow the university to grow its strong football brand and reaffirm its commitment to the success of our student athletes.”
If and when the move is approved, NIU would become the Mountain West’s ninth football member and 11th total effective July 1, 2026. The landing spot for the school’s Olympic sports remains unclear, though the Horizon League, the Ohio Valley Conference and the Summit League have reportedly expressed interest.
NIU, along with the University of Texas at El Paso – who accepted an invitation to the Mountain West as a full member on Oct. 1 – would join the conference’s seven legacy members: the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Nevada, Reno, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of New Mexico, San José State University and the University of Wyoming.
The move would also likely bring an end to the Mountain West’s expansion, which began after the Pac-12 Conference plucked away five of the league’s members in its own rebuilding efforts. The MWC added Grand Canyon University on Nov. 1 and the University of California, Davis on Dec. 10 as non-football members, putting the Western-based league at 10 full-time members.
NIU first popped up in realignment talks on Sept. 26, with Action Network’s Brett McMurphy first reporting that the Mountain West had notified the MAC office of its interest in adding NIU and leaguemate University of Toledo as affiliate members in football. Interest from NIU had reportedly waned by November before it received a formal offer from the MWC in early December.
This would be the second time NIU football has left the MAC and expanded westward. The Huskies, who first joined the league in 1975, left in 1987 and spent eight seasons as an independent and three in the defunct Big West Conference before rejoining the MAC in 1997. A jump to the Mountain West would reunite NIU with Nevada, San José State and UNLV from their shared time in the Big West.
NIU is coming off an 8-5 campaign in 2024 that culminated in a double overtime victory over Fresno State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 23. Earlier this season, the Huskies famously defeated College Football Playoff semifinalist University of Notre Dame, earning them a two-week stay in the Associated Press Top 25.
