DeKALB | Every season, college coaches say their team’s No. 1 goal is to win a conference championship. Just ask NIU football coach Joe Novak.

“Bowl games are great exposure for our university, but our No. 1 goal is still to win a MAC championship,” said Novak at the start of this season.

Any questions?

But historically, NIU athletics has come up short on conference titles.

Despite the national recognition NIU’s football team has received, it’s produced one outright conference championship (1983) in its history.

But things are beginning to change for the better at NIU.

Last year, NIU football and men’s basketball won their first ever outright MAC West titles. Even though the football team had been Co-MAC West champs three previous times.

This season, the men’s soccer team shared the MAC regular season title and will host the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed. It plays at 2 p.m. today against Buffalo.

And as the No. 7 seed, women’s soccer upset No. 2 Ohio 2-0 on Sunday in its quarterfinal game of the MAC Tournament. It also plays today, at 3 p.m. against No. 3 Kent State.

Then there’s the volleyball team. Coach Ray Gooden has this program back on track for the first time since 2001.

The Huskies won the MAC West Thursday despite a loss to Western Michigan because second-place Central Michigan lost to Eastern Michigan. The division title is Huskie athletics’ third since the start of the 2005 season.

And when push comes to shove, NIU’s volleyball team is arguably the most successful program in the history of Huskie sports.

Volleyball now has four divisional titles, six regular-season conference championships and eight conference tournament crowns.

Interestingly enough, not only is a women’s sport the most successful in school history, but collectively, women’s sports have seen brighter days than men’s at NIU.

On the dusty diamonds, softball has won four conference titles since 1982. They also raked in a MAC West crown in 1999.

The baseball program once snagged six Illinois intercollegiate titles. But one Mid-Continental title (1972) and one Midwestern collegiate title in 1996 are the last of its conference championships.

On the hardwood, women’s basketball has collected three regular-season championships and four conference tournament titles.

The men have been almost as successful, winning three regular-season crowns and two tournament championships. These totals do not include the men’s Little 19 conference trophies in 1933, ‘34, ‘41 and ‘45.

Staying indoors, the wrestling team has produced 34 individual MAC champions. But according to NIU sports information, it hasn’t won a team title despite being ranked in the top 25 numerous times.

However, there is one exception to the women’s reign over NIU athletics, and it comes on the plush, green grass of NIU’s campus.

Men’s soccer won the 1989 Big Central Tournament before taking home a 1984 Midwestern Metro title, and Mid-Continental championship in 1990.

Now, NIU coach Steve Simmons has his soccer squad on the brink of returning to the MAC Tournament Championship for the first time since 1999.

Its female counterparts have two titles all-time, winning the MAC in 1997 and ‘98. But since 1998, this crew hasn’t won more than six games in a year until this season.

And to top it off, the men’s golf team has the most conference championships of any male sport in NIU history. Two MAC championships in 1975 and ‘85 preceded four Mid-Continental conference titles from 1989-’91 and in 1994.

So, remember Huskie fans, female athletes at NIU know how to bring home the conference titles better than the men. And don’t forget, football team, a driver and bag of irons has trumped your helmet and shoulder pads six more times than you’ve won MAC titles.