Why? With all the departures, the MWC isn't much of a step up from the MAC in football, and NIU doesn't join them in basketball where they ARE a step up. Makes no sense.
NIU to join Mountain West as football-only member?
- Thread starter FeralFelidae
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I don't really understand this move, either. Just read a Trib article about it and the head coach generally mentioned that playing early/mid-week games (which is part of the "MACtion" brand and their tv deal) was undesirable and the move to MWC will actually ease travel by plane over taking the bus regionally everywhere...but I hardly see this as the reason the board of trustees would approve a move...especially when NIU has generally been pretty successful in the MAC. There was no mention in the Trib article about tv money, but I'd be hard-pressed to believe NIU is going to make substantially move in MWC over the MAC.
They will make substantially more in the MWC.
More info here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6044708/2025/01/07/northern-illinois-mountain-west-realignment/
More info here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6044708/2025/01/07/northern-illinois-mountain-west-realignment/
Should help their ticket base since no more worries about weekday night games in October/November.
But then the TV contracts expire in 2026 after the money teams like Boise State have left the MWC. I hope NIU did its homework!
Mountain West is losing its highest profile teams in 2026, so you wonder what their next TV deal will look like.
The Coaches take the most money, the University takes the most money, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the players take the most money too. Yet, people sometimes blame the players!
^ ^ ^ I think this is the by-product of primacy bias (someone help me if I'm remembering that term correctly) - we've been programmed to expect high salaries for coaches and lavish facilities for years - paying players in a formal manner is the most recent development and therefore in our mental models, causing the "problem."
In reality, what I think the sport truly needs is for enough leaders to acknowledge everyone should expect coaching salaries and the extravagance of facilities to recede as players are now accessing a significant portion of the revenue that was previously split only two ways (coaches and institutions). I think putting the squeeze on donors and fans will ultimately backfire here for all but maybe 20-30 schools...but I guess we'll see.
