DeKALB — Nearly 10 months after NIU’s first leap into conference realignment sent its football program to the Mountain West Conference, the shuffle has finally come full circle. The school announced Thursday its gymnastics program will also join the Mountain West as an affiliate member in 2026.
The move comes a day after NIU revealed its wrestling program will join the Pac-12 Conference as an affiliate member, also in 2026. With the news, all NIU sports have a conference announced as the school makes its exit from the Mid-American Conference at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Gymnastics will be the second sport to compete in the Mountain West after the school first revealed its plans to move its football program to the Western-based league in January. NIU will join the Horizon League for all other non-football sports.
“We are very happy to have our gymnastics program joining the Mountain West,” said NIU Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean Frazier. “With football having already begun the transition to the Mountain West, we know that we have a great relationship with the conference and are excited to add gymnastics to that partnership.”
NIU will become the fourth gymnastics member of the Mountain West for 2026-27, joining Air Force, UC Davis and San José State.
“This is a great opportunity for NIU gymnastics,” said NIU gymnastics head coach Dawnita “Nita” Teague. “We appreciate Sean Frazier and Courtney Vinson for all the work that went into this move. We are grateful to the Mountain West for the invitation to join their conference. This is a very exciting time for our athletes, and we are looking forward to competing with our new conference opponents.”
The Huskies posted a 5-13 meet record last season under Teague, then the team’s interim head coach before having the interim tag removed in July. NIU finished sixth in the MAC Championships and had Kiera O’Shea qualify for NCAA Regionals for the second straight season. NIU gymnastics have qualified for regional competition in each of the last 11 years, with multiple qualifiers in nine of those seasons.
