Ah, that’s right. The PAC12/MWC conglomeration is going to cause a lot of confusion over the next few years.
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It pays out ($2-2.5mil/school) slightly more than the Sun Belt ($2mil/school) and significantly more than CUSA ($700,000/school). What are your biggest issues with it? I think there’s zero excuse for any weeknight game to be on anything other than ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or CBS Sports Network, but money isn’t a concern of mine.
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Is that right $2-$2.5m per school. I thought it was a 13 year $100m deal in 2014 so about $800k per school. Was it renegotiated since?
Mr. Jive is correct. MAC TV deal pays about 2 million a year.
ESPN and Mid-American Conference agree 13-year extension - SportsPro.
I think Red Sea has this right. What Jive and Cool Papa are looking at is what people speculate will be the new numbers when the next deal is signed. Thus UMass is basing their decisions on that. I am no expert on this, but there is a long thread on the MAC board discussing this. A new deal will be coming in the next year or two.
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This is from Matt Brown this morning:
“So what’s going on with Northern Illinois?
Last week, Brett McMurphy, among others, reported that Northern Illinois had an offer to join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member, and that a decision would be “imminent.”
After talking with several sources in the college sports industry, I’ve been told that barring something massive changing at the last possible second, NIU is expected to accept that invitation, with an announcement coming early this week.
Part of the reason nothing was formally announced last week, I’m told, was that Northern Illinois needed to secure a conference home for the rest of their sports. I had been told that any school that moves their football program out of the MAC can’t expect to park the bulk of their other programs in the league, so NIU had to seek out a spot elsewhere.
I’m told that the Summit, Ohio Valley and Horizon all expressed a willingness to accept NIU as a conference member, with potentially other leagues as well, but the industry expectation that I heard was that NIU would eventually join the Horizon.”
Honestly, nothing of real value lost. UMass is joining so we will still be at a nice 12 teams. NIU does not bring much to the conference as for as geography or exposure. I think NIU and the MAC will both be fine.
Of the teams that have been rumored to be looking around over the last decade, NIU is the one that affects the MAC the least to lose. I do not consider them a pillar like losing OU or Toledo would be, which had limited rumors over the years.
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If this happens, starting in 2026 the new MWC would be NIU, Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP, and Wyoming.
That feels really spread out but I guess everybody is now.
I am sad NIU is leaving for football because I dont think the new MWC is a step up but obviously TV execs and NIU still do
They added nothing to the conference in the other sports
My guess is we will punish them by agreeing to play then in non conference like we did with Marshall
Anyone know what the exit fee will be? And will losing the Chicago market affect the impending TV deal with ESPN?
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LMAO we have a bigger footprint in Chicago than NIU does or ever did.
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I would like to see the MAC look into adding WKU and MTSU. We are a directional names conference anyway, may as add a couple that make geographic sense, and add the Kentucky and Tenn markets a bit, if the MAC can make the dollars work.
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I was thinking the same thing!
You hit the nail on the head. The big advantage of having NIU in the MAC was the Chicago media market. That is also why they are also attractive to MWC.
I would target Middle Tennessee and the growing Nashville media market as a replacement. This also might lead to being able to attract Western Kentucky to the MAC at some point.
As I said, I want both WKU and MTSU. Keeps the MAC at an even number too.
Having previously lived in the Chicago burbs for 20 years, my observation is that NIU typically got very little notice from the Chicago sports media. The exception would be during some of their best football years and of course their BCS bowl appearance. Then, they would tend to fade away as do the memories of those great years. Obviously the ND win this year put them back on the radar until their season “went south”.
For selfish reasons, I liked NIU in the MAC, as I got to see Miami play in DeKalb a number of times over the years. I enjoy going to game there, and their fans were actually very hospitable.
But, as pointed out above, they are not a core MAC team at heart, and bring little to the conference outside of football. I would consider the addition of a WKU to be an overall upgrade to the conference in terms of replacement. The jury is still out on what UMASS will bring, and MTSU only makes sense or their inclusion is what it would take to bring WKU into the fold.
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I did not miss NIU the last time they left the MAC
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Bingo. I’ve found in living in Chicagoland (and working in the west suburbs for 7 years now) that NIU football gets a fair bit of support from DuPage and Kane counties when they’re good, which isn’t nothing as those two counties have almost as many people as the entire Milwaukee metro area for reference. But it’s nowhere in the same league to what Big Ten teams or Notre Dame get, and unlike the major programs you won’t find a ton of NIU support in the city, north shore, or south side.
The reason for adding WKU would have been to create even numbers with the addition of UMass. With NIU leaving, that becomes a moot point. A WKU/MTSU joint entry would make sense, but MTSU already said no to that a couple years ago. There’s no other obvious choice to bring in alongside WKU and I wouldn’t support adding them by themselves if it would create an odd number.
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Also from Matt Brown:
FWIW, I’ve had a few TV people tell me that NIU’s location isn’t that big a deal for the MWC. Having inventory in the Central Time Zone is nice and useful, but the conference TV schedule will only have four NIU home games, plus whatever out of conference home games NIU schedules. And while the school is technically in the Chicago Media Market, it’s barely in that market.
Media markets matter for P5 conferences trying to sell a conference network to distributors. For G5, eyes are all that matters. ESPN cares about selling ESPN+ subscriptions, they don’t care where those subscribers live.
Markets do matter a little bit also in terms of getting eyes on your brand for potential students, but it’s not a primary concern. Miami doesn’t need games against NIU to get Chicagoland students.
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