Official : NIU to the Mountain West
- Thread starter WYNN or Dye
- Start date
lol, I've been checking everyday for some good news on this but, today I forgot as I got too busy with my budget accounting.
So, next week we will find out if their Board of Trustees approves this move. They would be voting on providing $2 million dollars to support the move. The meeting takes place at 11:30 PT January 7th.
NIU accepts invitation to Mountain West Conference
Northern Illinois University accepted a formal invitation to join the Mountain West Conference, but one thing is left in the way of making it official.
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Meanwhile in the Pac 7 trying to find the right "metric"
Maybe we should finish of with Sac State to leave nothing for the PAC.Meanwhile in the Pac 7 trying to find the right "metric"
Looks like we are done expanding. Sucks for a NIU a bit with all of the travel, but any travel partners would lower payouts for all.
No, UC Davis has so much more potential than Sac State and they share the same market, I believe. I would rather UC Davis move their football program up and expand their stadium. Then, the Pac whatever can have sac state. Texas State, Toledo and (if it could be worked out) Liberty would add three more bowl quality programs. I keep pushing Liberty as they pay theor head coach > 3 million per year. They will be competitive. Then, maybe look at adding St. Marys for basketball.
What we need now is to get a good media contract. If we can get our contract done before the pac-o-worms it might help. I remember when the b12 got their contract done ahead of the original pac12 they really benefitted. Gloria, it's media contract time. Get us a good one.
The problem with Liberty is that they are located in Virginia which is much further away than any other school on the mainland. NIU is 1,700 miles away while Liberty is almost 2,300 miles away.
I think the adds were pushed by media partners so we should see numbers quick.
Oakland A’s and San Diego Padres in baseball. The Blue and White sports network in College Football/Basketball (mostly BYU, but sometimes Utah State). Remember those days well, haha.
Are you surmising that or did that come out somewhere? Just curious because it seems weird to have one team in Illinois with Texas their closest rival.
Brett McMurphy posted this was last move by MWC.
I'm not sure he's right. He's typically really good with info, but I really do have a feeling NDSU is still in play. If any FCS school is ready for the jump it's NDSU.
Four time zones for the conference, while the pac7 is just a regional conference.
Media deal could surprise some, could box in the PAC into accepting an unappealing deal.
Media deal could surprise some, could box in the PAC into accepting an unappealing deal.
Oh ok yeah that would be surprising but in this environment nothing is surprising any more.
Ultimately I think this is at least one saving grace of this whole debacle that adds value where it otherwise wouldn’t exist.
Is it silly to think that the MW should embrace/integrate sports betting as an entertainment component to their offering?
It IS silly, and I have ZERO idea what it would look like, but I’m just thinking “f*** it” let’s see if we can’t do something to excite the sports betting public.
Maybe a MW fantasy league or some sh!t.
4 time zones sure, but how much does that matter when the teams that we are adding have very little impact in those time zones? I mean I don't think adding NIU and UTEP will unlock all of the mid west and Texas to watch SJSU and UNM at a 9:30pm local kickoff on a Saturday.
It helps some, sure. But it is hardly a huge victory.
It really depends on when the televised games are played and the interest from the casual fans? When you have a game between South Dakota St and North Dakota St get 1.58 million viewers, it shows you there still can be an interest in smaller programs if the casual fan sees interest in the quality of the game being played.
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It's not just about those folks tuning in to watch late MWC games. It opens up that premium East coast afternoon spot for TV viewership. Now you can run MWC games with 9am kickoffs or 1pm and get into that time slot. It's part of the reason the Pac 12 network sucked, all their premium time slots were late evening East coast slots. Now you get that mid-morning/afternoon East coast market, not necessarily just fans of those teams.
Another source on X is saying that the MWC is pausing for now but may add an already D1 travel mate for NIU later.
“May” and “later” leave a lot to interpretation, of course, but time will prove it to be right or wrong.
Flexibility in scheduling is very attractive to media. There’s a reason why Hawaii is very attractive for the media, it offers late night football coverage for gambling degenerates and football nuts.
It also really helped UNLV when they started to have afternoon and morning games instead of late night games.
NDSU or Tarleton State.
Tarleton has had a pretty fast rise at FCS level. Made playoffs and we're ranked. Appear to have pretty solid booster support and commitment to athletics.
I think I'd rather have the more known commodity in NDSU though.
Tarleton has had a pretty fast rise at FCS level. Made playoffs and we're ranked. Appear to have pretty solid booster support and commitment to athletics.
I think I'd rather have the more known commodity in NDSU though.
If there is going to be any more football additions I'm thinking the MW and UCDavis would work on a 2-4 year strategy to get them to FBS level and bring them into our schedule. Until we know what our media contract is going to pay us we don't need to think about adding anybody else and dilute whatever the payout is going to be. That is all you need to know. 
If there is going to be any more football additions I'm thinking the MW and UCDavis would work on a 2-4 year strategy to get them to FBS level and bring them into our schedule. Until we know what our media contract is going to pay us we don't need to think about adding anybody else and dilute whatever the payout is going to be. That is all you need to know.
Yeah any further additions can't dilute media deal. I'm just in the camp that NDSU despite smaller market wouldn't hurt. Tarleton? Im not sure would bring any value right now.
9am or 1230pm/1pm NIU vs UTEP game, or UNLV vs SJSU, or UNM vs Wyoming on CBSSports Up against the Big Boys in those same time slots wont even register numbers.
To be fair UNM vs anybody doesn't even do well in Albuquerque.
It's not about registering numbers... They still get ad dollars for those slots. That's ad revenue they weren't getting previously
And what is ad revenue determined by? Bigger numbers more $$. Probably why 6 million per school is being thrown around. Don’t they go hand in hand?
I am not a fan of Tartleton at all. Make UC Davis work.
I don’t get the point of anyone else mentioned if they are bringing 15K per game and no tv viewers what is the point?
Neither am I, but rumor was they were in conversations with the MWC.
Although this is pretty interesting.
The Texans averaged 18,697 fans per game, which was the fifth-best average in the FCS.
Thats more than UNM, RENO and USU this year.
