In early 2025, the news of Northern Illinois’ departure from the MAC sent shockwaves through the group of five universe. The MAC has been the rocky outcrop in the Drake passage of today’s college football realignment era, as it is one of the only conferences that has retained all its core members. NIU has won the MAC championship 5 of the last 15 years, and clearly the decision makers in Dekalb see a bright future ahead for the Huskies – one which doesn’t involve the MAC.
The Director of Athletics at NIU, Sean Frazier, said that the move was influenced by USC and UCLA deciding to leave the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten in 2022. Frazier said “There’s no such thing as standing still” when talking about today’s college football environment. He’s got a point, but Northern Illinois is not UCLA or USC. Although NIU wants to weather the NIL/Transfer portal/Super conference storm with this move, they have just left their mountain hut bolted to the top of Mount Washington (the MAC) and have ventured out into windchills a hundred below zero wearing only ankle socks.
NIU’s administration wants to reach the college football playoff just like every other program. They believe that joining the Mountain West, who this past season produced a college football playoff team in Boise State, will help them reach their goal. But the Mountain West is losing five of its most competitive members – of the five teams leaving the conference in 2026, four of them have won the conference championship within the past decade.
Boise State is also an anomaly when speaking about the MWC’s success and should not be used as a measuring stick for other programs. Of the 2 appearances made in NY6 bowls by MWC schools since the end of the BCS era (post 2013), Boise State accounts for both.
Supporters of this decision argue that even though the MWC will lose some of its key members before NIU joins, it has always cultivated a tradition of success, and that bodes well for the Huskies’ future. Programs like TCU, Utah, and BYU used the conference as a stepping stone to the P5. While it is true that those programs saw success as members of the MWC, the common denominator between them all is that they were all historically strong programs that established themselves (for the most part) while they were a part of the ill-fated WAC. In fact, almost every member of the current MWC is a former WAC member.
In 2024, NIU averaged just over 12,000 fans per game, which was the 8th lowest attendance out of the 12 teams in the MAC, and would have been dead last in the MWC. Some say that the move to the MWC could help put more fans in the seats by freeing up games to schedule in state rivals like Illinois and Northwestern. That may work for the four non-conference games a year that they play. But what about the other eight? Do you really think that when teams like Hawaii and Air Force come to town the buzz will be any greater than when any of the MAC’s three Michigan affiliates or Ball State visit Dekalb?
This isn’t the first time NIU has defected from the MAC, either. Their first MAC stint began in 1975 and ended after a decade, partially due a scheduling conflict that arose when the MAC decided to kick EMU out in 1984 to improve the conference’s attendance numbers after the NCAA threatened to demote the conference to I-AA for this same reason. They left the MAC before the 1986 season, and returned a decade later in 1997. Since NIU rejoined in 97’, the MAC has been made up of the same twelve teams, apart from Temple and UMass tagging in for a few seasons. The 2025 CFB landscape, from NIL and super conferences to the transfer portal, is way different than the way it was 39 years ago when NIU left the MAC the first time. The current administration thinks the grass will be greener this time around, but I’m not sure that I agree.
Life (and more importantly #MACTION) will still go on in the MAC without NIU. UMass is slated to rejoin in 2025, and they will at least replace the vacancy caused by the departure of NIU. From a competitive standpoint though, UMass leaves much to be desired, as they have not had a winning season since 2010. During their four season stretch in the MAC from 2012 to 2015, the Minutemen complied a conference record of 7-25.
Although I remain a critic of NIU’s decision, I understand why the administration has chosen to take this route. I am interested to see how they will fare in their new home, and I wish them the best of luck.
Group of five til' I die 