:quality(70):focal(1616x1088:1626x1098)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/2TEGKE5ULJBEZJB7QZJKYORHTQ.JPG)
The NIU Board of Trustees on Thursday approved $1.4 million to pay the entrance fee to join the Horizon League, effective July 1, 2026.
The move will officially end NIU’s run as a full member of the Mid-American Conference, of which they’ve been a member since 1997.
In January, the university announced that the football team would join the Mountain West Conference. In a news conference announcing the move, both university president Lisa Freeman and athletic director Sean Frazier said they believed MAC by-laws required all members to compete in football. A Freedom of Information request by the Daily Chronicle for NIU’s contract with the MAC was denied.
The board approved the motion unanimously.
Board member Eric Wasowicz asked Freeman how it was a good thing financially.
“Finances were on the top of our mind in moving football and re-homing the other Olympic sports,” Freeman said. “I feel it’s a positive resource decision as well as from a student-athlete competition and development decision.”
The school will make six annual payments of $233,333.33 to the Horizon League. The league does not have an annual fee, according to Freeman.
Like with the MAC, NIU will be the westernmost team in the Horizon. But the league also features two schools in Wisconsin: Wisconsin-Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Northern Kentucky is the southernmost school, and Robert Morris in Pennsylvania is the easternmost. Both schools are right on the border with Ohio.
The move will be effective for every sport except football, wrestling and gymnastics. While football is in the Mountain West, the Horizon doesn’t sponsor wrestling or gymnastics while the MAC does. The MAC has several affiliate members for those two sports, including NIU’s future Horizon League foe Cleveland State for wrestling.
Freeman said the university has applied to remain in the MAC as affiliate members for wrestling and gymnastics.
“Everyone of our student-athletes in every one of our sports will have the opportunity to compete regionally or in the case of football, in the Mountain West,” Freeman said.
Frazier said there were other options for wrestling and gymnastics should the MAC not accept the application. He also said the membership fee for affiliate members was between $5,000 and $10,000 annually.
The Horizon also includes Indiana University-Indianapolis, Oakland University, Purdue-Fort Wayne, Robert Morris, Detroit Mercy, Wright State and Youngstown State.
After the board meeting, there was a news conference scheduled with Freeman, Frazier and Horizon commissioner Julie Roe Lach. More information will be made available at that time.
The NIU programs joining the Horizon will be baseball, cross country, track and field, men’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, softball, volleyball, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s soccer and women’s tennis.
The board last month approved a $2 million fee for the football team to join the Mountain West. The board has to approve all obligations of financial resources over $500,000.