December 16, 2024 | Read Online

Here's what I'm hearing about NIU, the MWC, and Mid-Major Realignment

Changes are coming, and not just to the MWC

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Quick housekeeping notes before today’s newsletter.

Quick reminder for our premium subscribers: We will hold Office Hours, a Zoom call conversation with me and the Extra Points Community, this Wednesday, December 18, at 6 PM CST.

We’ll have an RSVP link at the bottom of this newsletter, along with the next two newsletters. I hope to see you then!

I am also taking some time off around the holidays. I’m taking off for Utah Thursday night, and will be out in the mountains with family for a little over a week, with limited access to email. We will resume a regular posting schedule after the holidays.

But we’re still at work today! And I’ve been working the phones to try to get more information about what’s happening in the conference realignment world. Let’s start with a school not far from Extra Points HQ, one considering a, uh, less traditional move.

So what’s going on with Northern Illinois?

Last week, Brett McMurphy, among others, reported that Northern Illinois had an offer to join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member, and that a decision would be “imminent.”

After talking with several sources in the college sports industry, I’ve been told that barring something massive changing at the last possible second, NIU is expected to accept that invitation, with an announcement coming early this week.

Part of the reason nothing was formally announced last week, I’m told, was that Northern Illinois needed to secure a conference home for the rest of their sports. I had been told that any school that moves their football program out of the MAC can’t expect to park the bulk of their other programs in the league, so NIU had to seek out a spot elsewhere.

I’m told that the Summit, Ohio Valley and Horizon all expressed a willingness to accept NIU as a conference member, with potentially other leagues as well, but the industry expectation that I heard was that NIU would eventually join the Horizon.

Why? And what does this mean for everybody else?