{"id":3043,"date":"2025-01-08T11:43:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T11:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T11:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T11:43:06","slug":"mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/","title":{"rendered":"MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#8217;26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer<span class=\"timestamp \">Jan 7, 2025, 04:12 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\"><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Covers college football.<\/li>\n<li>Joined ESPN in 2014.<\/li>\n<li>Attended Washington State University.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a data-clubhouse-guid=\"69426e61-b945-05b3-175a-f5116c139508\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/2459\/northern-illinois-huskies\">Northern Illinois<\/a> will join the Mountain West as a football-only member in 2026, the school and conference announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What a great opportunity for NIU Athletics as we expand our horizons, adapt to this new national model of college athletics and prepare to start a new chapter in the history of NIU Football,&#8221; NIU athletic director Sean T. Frazier said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to NIU, the Mountain West will include <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"cc5175c1-38c8-8a98-39ad-99b2201c7db7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/2005\/air-force-falcons\">Air Force<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/62\/hawaii-rainbow-warriors\">Hawai&#8217;i<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"1f3dbbad-f63b-a967-e511-b8c7464a9c5f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/2439\/unlv-rebels\">UNLV<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"ed53380d-a53d-08d0-d5a4-53e0d61561eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/2440\/nevada-wolf-pack\">Nevada<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"a35083ab-ed9e-a3f2-be14-f7958c2b6655\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/167\/new-mexico-lobos\">New Mexico<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/23\/san-jose-state-spartans\">San Jose State<\/a> and <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"da12224c-5cfe-470b-a0c3-a2df7b134a8f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/2751\/wyoming-cowboys\">Wyoming<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The move is another fallen domino in college sports&#8217; ongoing conference realignment process that caught up to the Mountain West in the fall, when <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"ef2be04b-491c-0b6d-e4d9-1fbf2ab5cbca\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/68\/boise-state-broncos\">Boise State<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"0a69e6dc-71b5-57a3-7254-341426f50c2f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/36\/colorado-state-rams\">Colorado State<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"2b421a62-df9b-86de-966c-52070634c8d2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/278\/fresno-state-bulldogs\">Fresno State<\/a>, <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"9947474f-7dd9-968b-c95d-bcc11800bdcd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/21\/san-diego-state-aztecs\">San Diego State<\/a> and <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"fa41bd5d-d79b-2fd4-e61e-78b7463de8e1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/328\/utah-state-aggies\">Utah State<\/a> announced they were leaving for the new-look Pac-12, which collapsed in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are excited about adding Northern Illinois football to the Mountain West,&#8221; commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement. &#8220;In evaluating NIU, the MW Board of Directors and Directors of Athletics carefully considered and were impressed by its history of football success and its commitment to academic excellence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear what conference NIU&#8217;s remaining sports will compete in once it moves to the Mountain West for football. The school said it will continue discussions with the Mid-American Conference &#8212; where it has participated since 1997 &#8212; but will also review opportunities in &#8220;several of the regionally based multi-sport conferences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Mountain West also recently announced the additions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/team\/_\/id\/2253\/grand-canyon-lopes\">Grand Canyon<\/a> and <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"e27d3bb5-d723-2365-1d65-58a4583735f6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/302\/uc-davis-aggies\">UC Davis<\/a> for sports other than football (Grand Canyon does not have football; Davis will remain at the FCS level).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/story\/_\/id\/43324617\/northern-illinois-join-mountain-west-football-only-26\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff WriterJan 7, 2025, 04:12 PM ET Close Covers college football. Joined ESPN in 2014. Attended Washington State University. Northern Illinois will join the Mountain West as a football-only member in 2026, the school and conference announced Tuesday. &#8220;What a great opportunity for NIU Athletics as we expand our horizons, adapt to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#8217;26&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a1.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2024\/0927\/r1392758_1296x729_16-9.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.8 (Yoast SEO v22.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#039;26 - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#039;26\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff WriterJan 7, 2025, 04:12 PM ET Close Covers college football. 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Northern Illinois will join the Mountain West as a football-only member in 2026, the school and conference announced Tuesday. &#8220;What a great opportunity for NIU Athletics as we expand our horizons, adapt to...Read More &ldquo;MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#8217;26&rdquo; &raquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-08T11:43:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/a1.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2024\/0927\/r1392758_1296x729_16-9.jpg\" \/><meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/a1.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2024\/0927\/r1392758_1296x729_16-9.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/a1.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2024\/0927\/r1392758_1296x729_16-9.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b364f5cc7fbc8705a888e63db8c026a\"},\"headline\":\"MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in &#8217;26\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-08T11:43:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-08T11:43:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\"},\"wordCount\":292,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2025\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ventil.rs\/blog\/sports\/mwc-adds-northern-illinois-as-football-only-in-26\/\",\"name\":\"MWC adds Northern Illinois as football-only in '26 - 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