Is Northern Illinois Making a Mistake?

The ripples of conference realignment continue to shape the landscape of college sports, as the most recent move involves the Northern Illinois Huskies moving their football program from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to the Mountain West Conference as soon as 2026. While the MAC has largely been considered realignment-proof for the relative undesirability of its programs, it hasn't been unnoticed by larger conferences, with schools like Buffalo and Toledo getting interest from the American before, and clearly, Northern Illinois' giant-killer football program earning interest from the Mountain West.

The reasoning for the cross-country move is simple, and it reflects all the other moves that have been made: more money. Northern Illinois as a university is cash-strapped from top to bottom, even though they've performed well over the last 20 years as a program, and the move to the Mountain West, even if it does include their nearest opponent being Wyoming, looks to be able to give them some financial breathing room while the rest of their sports either stay in the MAC or move to the Summit or Missouri Valley conferences.

But oddly enough, this isn't the first time Huskie football has managed to jettison themselves from the MAC and play football in a western-oriented conference, as in the early 90s, the Huskies found themselves as members of the Big West's football conference, playing some of the same teams they'll be playing in the new Mountain West, as well as some other programs like Arkansas State and Louisiana Tech. Unfortunately for Northern Illinois, that conference was unstable, and they were unsuccessful. They'd return to the MAC by the mid-90s.

Some have lambasted the recent move simply for its geographic oddness, but if Northern Illinois wants the move to be successful, they'll have to learn from the failure of their last move out west. The stakes are higher now, but so too is their ability to win football games, especially considering their biggest competition will be fellow P5-slayer UNLV. The rest of the conference, at this moment, appears weak.

This video is made under the pretense of fair use, for the purpose of education. No content used in this video, whether it be visual or audio, is my own, and all rights go to their respective owners. Music and video were sourced from YouTube's audio and video library. Information used in this video was sourced from the sources indicated on the r/CFB thread, "NIU and the terrible, horrible, no good decision to leave the MAC (1986)", organized by user shakin_the_bacon.

sources:

https://northernstar.info/sports/niu-...
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/19...
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/19...
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/19...
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/19...
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/28/sp...