Northern Illinois joins Mountain West Conference, school announces – NBC Chicago

The Northern Illinois Huskies football team will join the Mountain West Conference, leaving the Mid-American Conference of which it had been a member for nearly 30 years.

The Huskies will officially join the Mountain West as a football-only school beginning with the 2026 season, the conference announced Tuesday.

According to a press release, there will be a total of nine teams in the conference for this season, Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming joining the Huskies in the conference.

“This is a truly exciting day for Northern Illinois University, for the NIU football program and for Huskies fans across the country,” said NIU President Lisa C. Freeman. “We are extremely pleased to accept the Huskie football program’s invitation to join a prestigious group of universities to compete in the Mountain West Conference. This move will open new opportunities for our student-athletes, expand the reach and strengthen the national brand of Huskie Football as they represent NIU and compete for championships the hard way and the right way.

Northern Illinois is one of the teams competing in the conference after Boise State, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State have all announced they will be leaving the Mountain West to join the new-look Pac-12 starting in 2026.

In response, UTEP announced that it would join the conference as a full member in 2026. UC-Davis and Grand Canyon University will both join the conference as non-football schools in 2026 .

It is unclear which conference Northern Illinois will compete in for other sports, including basketball and volleyball, as the Mid-American Conference will not allow them to remain in the conference without their team. soccer.

The Huskies joined the MAC in 1998, according to the conference website. They have won the conference football title five times, most recently in 2021, and qualified for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl earlier this season, which they won in an overtime thriller against Fresno State.