niu FB leaves the MAC.....implications for the other sports

[nog]

NIU Football Joins Mountain West Conference - NIU Athletics

DeKALB, Ill. – Northern Illinois University has accepted an invitation for the Huskies to join the Mountain West Conference as a football only member beginning in

niuhuskies.com

so what will this mean for all the other sports? Especially gymnastics and wrestling. They seem to be the 2 sports that would not be offered in the proposed conferences they are looking at for the other sports. Some say that they can stay in the MAC, others say no, that there is a rule that you can not leave other sports in the MAC because you can't move your football to a different conference and leave the rest of your sports in that conference (something about football rules) IDK

Anyone have any incite on that possible rule?

 

[irichluck21]

Any of NIU sports that are sponsored by Mountain West would move to Mountain West.

With Boise State and Utah State leaving MW to go to the Pac 12, that leaves just San Jose State and Air Force in Mountain West, not enough to sponsor a conference meet (you need 4). NIU would make the 3rd team, unless a 4th school moves to Mountain West, then no conference sponsored sport.

NIU could become an affiliate of the MAC for gymnastics. Probably for wrestling as well.

For example, Denver is in the Summit League, which does not sponsor gymnastics, so Denver is an affiliate of the Big 12.

Likely San Jose State and Air Force will return to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation if Mountain West discontinues gymnastics, and NIU can stay in the MAC for gymnastics.

 

[nog]

The deal with NIU explicitly states that they are welcoming football only. No other sports from NIU will be joining mountain west

 

[irichluck21]

So if I am reading it correctly, NIU is not joining the Mountain West, football is just joining, which make football an affiliate of MW. Meaning the other sports can stay in MAC, unless other conferences are found. Most likely gymnastics would stay in the MAC.

 

[RedBirdie]

MAC would have to agree to that weird set-up, and they don't have a reason to. There's no benefit for the MAC to allow teams to go to other conferences for football and continue to underwrite the costs of sponsoring non-revenue sports. If they allow NIU to do that, they've opened the door for all their schools to do that. And football is a HUGE deal for the MAC. They will fight tooth and nail to prevent the conference from being cannibalized--and if that means kicking all NIU teams out of the MAC, then they absolutely will.

 

[irichluck21]

It will be interesting to see what happens.

The other option might be the MIC.
Since they are down to 4 members with UIC (2019) and Lindenwood (2024) leaving.

NIU was in the MIC previous to coming to MAC. They won the MIC conference championships in 1992 and 1993.