'Location, location, location': Behind the inspirations for NIU football move to the Mountain West
DEKALB, Ill. - Back in the summer 2022, NIU Director of Athletics Sean Frazier was in his car when the news struck.
USC and UCLA were going to spurn the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten. Frazier called a friend of his who works in the Big Ten about the bombshell report.
Frazier had to ask: What's going on here?
"We're not done," Frazier recalled his friend saying.
The Big Ten was not. The conference added Oregon and Washington to form a super conference that rivaled the SEC, which armed itself with Oklahoma and Texas. That idea spurned an idea in Frazier's head.
That idea was the inspiration behind NIU football's move to the Mountain West Conference.
Get ahead of the curve while you still can.
"We need to make sure we're in an environment where things are stable," Frazier said during a half-hour press conference on Tuesday.
That line of thinking is what led to Tuesday. Northern Illinois football will play in the Mountain West Conference starting in 2026. It's a sentence that seemed impossible in any other era. Welcome to college football in 2025
Frazier, NIU President Lisa Freeman and Huskies football coach Thomas Hammock were in attendance, while Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez joined virtually.
All four sang the praises of the move to the Mountain West. Hammock, speaking from the football side, mentioned the excitement of playing in a conference that had a team earn the No. 3 seed in the 2025 College Football Playoff bracket.
"As good as Sept. 7 was," Hammock said, referencing NIU's 16-14 win over No. 5 Notre Dame in 2024, "today is even better."
Football-wise, the move makes sense. It's a step-up in competition for NIU, which has earned the MAC wins over Alabama, Maryland and Notre Dame since 2003. The Mountain West also brings in a chance for more revenue with an impending media rights deal that's coming after the current deal with FOX and CBS expired in 2026.
But, Frazier said four things spurned this move: The House of Representatives v. NCAA case settlement, the transfer portal, the Name, Image and Likeness legislation and access to the College Football Playoff.
It's why Frazier cited an old real estate cliché when discussing the importance of a move like NIU's to the Mountain West.
"Location, location, location," Frazier told FOX 32 after the press conference.
A poster showcasing Northern Illinois' addition to the Mountain West Conference sits on display in the NIU football offices on Jan. 7, 2024, in DeKalb, Ill. (Photo: Chris Kwiecinski/FOX 32)
It was a triple entendre, in a way.
For NIU, it's a great location in the Mountain West for football. Frazier and Freeman were confident any new media rights deal would offset any higher travel costs that come with playing games in Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada and more.
It's also a great location to be in DeKalb when the income from the new media rights deal comes in. It would mean the school can think about different plans or add-ons for athletic facilities.
What helps all of this is how Frazier had an example in mind of how this would work. Army and Navy, who play football in the American Athletic Conference only. Both service academies are full-time members of the Patriot League.
The third location, though, will be for NIU's non-football sports. That's to be determined.
When asked about whether leaving the MAC in football also means leaving the MAC in all sports, Frazier and Freeman both said they're navigating options in joining conferences outside the MAC.
Staying in the MAC is an option, and NIU will be in the MAC as a full-time member until 2026, but staying in the MAC past 2026 might not be up to NIU. Freeman said the MAC's bylaws say inclusion in the conference requires status as an FBS school. NIU, clearly, is an FBS school. But the MAC may not want NIU as one of its 16 affiliate members while its biggest asset plays for another conference.
Frazier was also blunt. If the MAC doesn't want NIU's non-football sports or if circumstances change to where the Huskies' non-football sports need another home, NIU will put its other sports in a different conference.
He's not just saying that. He's confident it'll happen.
Frazier said other conferences have already reached out to NIU about adding its non-football sports to the fold. Frazier isn't allowed to say which conference those are. However, Freeman did say during the press conference NIU is looking for the best regional fit.
"We will be looking for the best regional opportunity for our other sports, and we will have time to do that," Freeman said. "That doesn't mean our other sports won't stay in the MAC."
There are plenty of regional fits for NIU, especially outside of football.
The Missouri Valley Conference, Horizon League and Ohio Valley Conference all house regional teams. While the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley sponsor football in their own ways – the Missouri Valley Football Conference is its own entity – they both play at the FCS level and couldn't take NIU in for football if it wanted to.
Those three could be options, if they aren't already.
It's part of the decisions Freeman, Frazier and university leadership still need to make now that the move to the Mountain West Conference is in effect.
"Looking at the options and things we had available, we felt this was the right course of action at this point," Frazier said.