While the Mid-American Conference (MAC) has remained unscathed by the seemingly never-ending conference realignment spurred on by college football, that may no longer be the case and the Northern Illinois football program that upset Notre Dame earlier this season may soon be playing out west.

NIU is reportedly considering leaving the MAC and joining the Mountain West Conference, which saw several of its teams announce their 2026 departures for the Pac-12 a few months ago.

“Breaking: NIU considering offer to join Mountain West as football-only school, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ,” Brett McMurphy reported via X, formerly Twitter. “A decision if Huskies leave MAC for MW is ‘imminent,' sources said. If NIU joins, MW will have 9 football members & 10 basketball members.”

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The Huskies have been members of the MAC since 1997 when they started their second tenure in the conference; NIU had previously been a part of the MAC from 1975 to 1986. In between its MAC stints, Northern Illinois was an independent for a few years before joining the Mid-Continent Conference and then the Horizon League. The university's football team, because neither of those two conferences sponsored football, competed in the Big West from 1993 to 1995. NIU eventually made its way back to the MAC, where it has stayed for the past quarter of a century. Since re-joining the MAC, NIU has won five conference and 12 division titles.

However, with the major conference realignment happening over the past few years, Northern Illinois may soon join the likes Wyoming, UNLV, Air Force in the Mountain West, in addition to soon-to-be MWC members Hawaii, UTEP, and UC Davis. To remain an FBS conference, the MWC must have at least eight football members, which, thanks to the additions, the conference would have even with the departures of Boise State, Utah State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State, all of whom announced earlier this season that they were exiting the conference in 2026 for the Pac-12.

In the second game of this season, the Huskies went to South Bend and defeated No. 5 Notre Dame in one of the biggest upsets in recent college football history. NIU struggled in MAC play, though, and finished the regular season 7-5. The Huskies are set to play Fresno State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 23.