NIU’s Board of Trustees approved a $2 million entrance fee for NIU football to move from the Mid-American Conference to the Mountain West Conference on Jan. 7 after spending over two decades in the MAC.
While the move leaves the remainder of NIU’s athletic programs in search of a new conference home following the 2025 season, the move will drive student engagement while providing financial benefits.
It is no secret that NIU has struggled with game attendance in recent years. NIU averaged a game-to-game attendance of 12,162 throughout the 2024 season, according to D1.ticker.
This ranks the Huskies sixth-last in terms of all 134 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs.
As the Mountain West is a bigger conference containing more talent than the MAC, the move will bring more attention to NIU football games.
Bronson Schober, a senior history major, commented on how he believes NIU’s westward move will improve attendance.
“I’m excited about the exposure,” Schober said. “There’s going to be more TV revenue, so hopefully that gets more exposure, and it goes to the fans, and they could see it and want to attend more games.”
Moreover, the MAC’s midweek MACtion would be a thing of the past. Midweek MACtion was implemented in 2004 in order to draw more eyes to the MAC’s football programs, scheduling games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The midweek games occur later in the season, in the months of October and November – right when Illinois’ unforgiving cold weather ramps up.
While midweek MACtion did bring in a bigger audience on television, the caveat, in-person attendance showed increasingly negative results.
Richie Leber, a senior sports management major at NIU, commented on why he feels midweek MACtion fell short in terms of attendance.
“I think it’s a mix of poor weather and also just being in the middle of the school week,” Leber said. “Most people are working on homework and they have exams. So when it’s not on the weekend, you don’t want to take the time out to go and do this for three hours when you have more important things to do for school.”
Mountain West’s version of Midweek MACtion includes schools hosting games on Friday nights, allowing students to attend the game without having classes the following day.
The move is also beneficial financially, as the Mountain West’s promised annual conference payout of $3.5 million is far greater than the MAC’s offering of a measly $833,000.
Additionally, the move to the Mountain West offers NIU access to a more widespread audience through broadcasting on TNT rather than ESPN. After all, more eyes on the team opens doors in terms of recruiting.
Beyond the financial benefits and increased exposure for football, the move raises concerns for NIU’s other athletic programs.
Attendance struggles aren’t exclusive to football – many of NIU’s other sports teams already contend with low turnout.
With the football team exiting the MAC, those programs will now need to secure a new conference affiliation, which could have lasting consequences for recruiting, funding and competition levels.
Even though NIU students primarily attend football games, completely neglecting the other sports is not a viable solution.
Rodney Caughron, an associate professor in the department of Kinesiology & Physical Education with experience at the University of Iowa in collegiate ticket sales, shared how he believes the move to the Mountain West will negatively affect NIU’s other sport programs.
“That’s my main concern,” Caughron said regarding the effect of football’s move onto NIU’s other sports. “There’s so much uncertainty in that (moving NIU’s other sports to a smaller conference). What if we don’t have an offer from somebody else? So what is going to happen, I think that’s really critical to all the other sports. Because, again, if I’m a coach and trying to recruit and people get wind of this, they’re not going to want to come here.”
As all of NIU’s sport programs reside in the MAC aside from men’s soccer – member of the Missouri Valley Conference – the sports that aren’t football would be forced to find a new conference. According to Article IV, section H of the MAC’s bylaws, all colleges must have an FBS football team in the conference to be a full-time member.
“Each full conference member shall be in compliance with NCAA FBS sports sponsorship minimums, including football and basketball for men and volleyball and basketball for women,” according to the bylaws.
Potential suitors for NIU’s olympic sports include the Horizon League, the Summit League, the Missouri Valley Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference – a significant drop off from the MAC.
While football is poised to benefit from the move, the uncertainty surrounding NIU’s other programs raises lingering questions. Joining one of the four listed conferences would harm the sports involved by limiting recruiting, NIL, coaching and overall performance.
