With the university teetering on the brink of two conferences, the Mid-Continent and the Missouri Valley, it will soon be time for somebody to make a decision.

First, the presidents of the MVC will convene in St. Louis for a meeting on potential league expansion on Nov. 2, to decide on the fate of their current 10-team conference.

They will examine all the options reviewed by the league faculty representatives and administrators at their recent fall meetings, which concluded on the 26th of this month.

Decisions about possible expansion are expected to be reached sometime in November.

Meanwhile, the Mid-Con is also looking to expand from their current 10-team pool and add two more teams and have two six-team divisions.

The Mid-Con announced last Monday that a motion for possible expansion passed but still must go through the league’s Presidents’ Committee. That meeting will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

Invitations for new schools to enter the conference will not be given out until the motion passes.

Who the possible new schools might be is still a mystery as a spokesperson for the Mid-Con, Tom Lessig, said no information was available until the presidents meet.

All Lessig would say was that a committee made up of league athletic directors, senior women’s administrators and Mid-Con Commissioner Jerry Ippoliti has narrowed its expansion choices down, but declined to mention any particular school(s).

Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell has said in the past that if an invitation to enter the MVC were to come along, the university might not necessarily jump at it.

He also commented that though there were no problems being in the Mid-Con, the welfare of the athletic program and the university would be taken into consideration if a decision between the two conferences had to be made.

That decision may come as early as next month, and the fate of NIU will remain a mystery until that time.