NIU, a flag-bearing school for the Mid-American Conference over the last two decades, reportedly departs once again for the allure of the West.
The Mid-American Conference is anticipating to fall from 13 to 12 full members starting in 2026.
On Friday afternoon, The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported via Twitter that Northern Illinois’ board is expected to accept an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference as an affiliate member in football, eschewing the conference the university has called home over two separate stints totaling 37 seasons.
The Northern Star’s Skyler Kisellus reported later Friday afternoon the invitation is waiting on formal approval from the board; NIU is expected to pay $2 million as part of the membership fees to join the Mountain West.
As of publication, there has been no official word regarding Northern Illinois’ membership status from the university or the Mid-American Conference.
The Mountain West Conference, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, first expressed interest in Northern Illinois and Toledo on Sept. 26, with McMurphy first reporting and ESPN’s Pete Thamel confirming independently later that evening.
NIU is set to what is referred to as the “core seven” members of the Mountain West, which includes Air Force, Hawai’i, UNLV, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State and Wyoming. NIU, along with UTEP— who accepted an invitation to the league as a full member on Oct. 1— are expected to round out the conference’s football members.
The move will put the Mountain West at nine football members.
The Mountain West had been fairly active in acquiring new programs over the last two months leading up to the NIU news, adding Grand Canyon University on November 1st and UC-Davis on Tuesday afternoon to the conference in all sports except for football. McMurphy was first to report NIU’s official invitation late on Dec. 10.
This is not the first time NIU has left the MAC to go West; the Huskies were previously MAC members from 1975-1985 and re-joined the league in 1997 after eight years of independence and a three-season stint in the doomed Big West Conference.
The MAC has not seen a full member leave the conference since 2005, when Marshall departed for Conference USA. The last affiliate member to leave, coincidentally, was UMass in 2015. The Minutemen will return to the MAC starting in 2025, this time as a full member.
NIU’s non-football sports are up in the air at present; the expectation is the university will be joining the Horizon League, which does not sponsor football. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Horizon League currently has 11 members, including notable basketball schools such as Oakland University, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, Wright State and Northern Kentucky.
(Youngstown State, another full member of the Horizon League, plays football as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.)
Other potential all-sports stops for NIU include the Missouri Valley Conference and Ohio Valley Conference.
With the move expected to take place in 2026, NIU is set to play one last season in the confines of the Midwest.
NIU football is fresh off an 8-5 campaign in 2024, beating Fresno State in double overtime to win the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 23. The postseason win capped off a season highlighted by a road upset of current College Football Playoff participant Notre Dame and a brief two-week stay in the Associated Press Top 25.