They’re completely irrelevant in the Chicago market. Multiple B1G schools have far more of a presence here than NIU. Don’t know how up to date this is, but it gives a good snapshot as to how much of a presence they have in Chicago.
From Brett McMurphy update from this afternoon:
“Because of the holidays, process for Northern Illinois officials to make a decision whether to join Mountain West as football-only member or remain in MAC won’t be determined until January, sources said. NIU has offer to become MW’s 9th football member, sources said”
Bluesman interpretation: This shit is going to be expensive!
I think the exit fee is “negotiable”. Temple reportedly paid $6 million to exit over a decade ago. However, that was with short notice which is probably what NIU wants as well. How about each remaining MAC school gets $ 1 million?
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There is a thread on the MAC board which shows all the best TV numbers for viewership involve NIU. It shows pretty clearly that NIU football brings bigger viewing numbers than other MAC teams. So even though they get a small percentage of a huge number of people in Chicagoland it is more total people than the rest of us can command. Of course, dropping the rest of their sports from our league is a positive
Dick, I was thinking about whet you just brought up the other day in this context: has NIU won anything in the MAC beyond football…my mind went to track as I sorta recall them being decent there and maybe a baseball title but otherwise it’s blank.
I think they won a MAC basketball championship once in the 70’s or 80’s. Having gone to every MAC tournament, they were rarely there.
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Thank you, I trust your insights as if you didn’t see it, well, it prolly didn’t happen. I don’t care if they leave. They mean nothing to me…although we got Darwishi Hunter from NIU and he was one of my favorite hoops players ever, so thank you Huskies I guess…
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Kenny Battle is the only stud player I recall from there, and he transferred to Illinois.
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IF NIU leaves it will probably signal the end of the venerable Mallory Cup rivalry. The trophy will permanently reside in Oxford.
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Dick can you point me to that thread with the great tv ratings for niu?
2024 MACTION TV viewership thread
Those numbers indicate that losing NIU will hurt the MAC tv deal in the long term. It also suggests why the MWC wants NIU in the league. Thanks for the link, Dick and Blues.
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When you look at the viewership numbers on that thread, there is a huge drop off after the top three of NIU, Akron, and Miami. From 240K down to 90K. Only three MAC teams above 100K. Here is a question (and I don’t know the answer) what kind of viewership does UMASS bring or we anticipate them to bring, and what type of viewership do WKU and/or MTSU bring? If the MAC added WKU and MTSU,would that make up for the loss of NIU viewership and/or exceed it, and would it increase the revenue payout to the MAC if that were to happen. I expect answers to these questions in 10 minutes! 
Addendum: if you open the link to Twitter in that thread, it answers the UMASS question. They bring virtually nothing currently, 23K, which puts them between Ball State’s 32K and UB 9K. So bottom three in the MAC.
The MAC was engaged in conversations about adding WKU and Middle Tennessee a couple of years ago. The scuttlebutt at the time was the deal fell apart because although WKU wanted to make the move MTSU did not.
Landscapes change. It never hurts to pick up a damn phone and inquire.
For those interested in how the MAC stacks up:
https://x.com/skylerkisellus/status/1865115238581879139
My guess is Akron’s numbers are inflated by playing 2 teams that are top 20 for most watched… Miami didn’t quite get that indirect bump, only playing 1 team in the top 50 most watched.
EDIT: Adding a note that the methodology here is a bit questionable - any game they don’t have data for was counted as 0.
I contacted Skyler for his source material, and it is this article. The number of viewers is per game. WKU comes in at 86 (and also 79 as they are on here twice!)(my guess is one of the WKU is actually WMU). MTSU is 120. Which college football programs were most-watched in 2024? | Run It Back With Zach
I wouldnt look at Skylers tweet. That is impacted by NIU and Miami playing Notre Dame and Akron playing Ohio State. It is exceedingly misleading
The more relevant part is the comparisons of midweek maction and NIU was the highest rated
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Just passing on the source material. That is why I asked for it. Taking the initiative!