If I’m comparing program ceilings, give me UB all day. Fake it til you make it only works if you have the alum dollars to compete at the higher levels, but you need the conference name to drop the fundraising difficulty. UB is part of the SUNY system, Buffalo is a solid city, and there’s a solid alumni base (although most remember UB much different than it is today). NIU is over an hour outside Chicago, doesn’t have an alumni base with money, and every time they’ve tried to catch momentum from their teams, their lack of alumni dollars has killed it.
IIRC NIU tried to start a program similar to the Graduating Champions campaign to continue some Orange Bowl hype and they didn’t get close to their goal.
UB is definitely a better overall school for the MAC, it’s a solid university/institutional fit and football is progressing. But their basketball program is quickly turning into a dumpster fire.
NIU probably has about the same relative presence in the west suburbs as Miami has around Cincinnati/Dayton. To your point the distance to Dekalb and lack of money keeps them where they are, but when you’re the closest DI college for DuPage/Kendall Counties (with more population than the entire Milwaukee area) it gives them false hope that they can be more than what they can realistically obtain.
