:quality(70):focal(2234x1125:2244x1135)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/QRMXZDP3YNCPREVSNJMFS4A3T4.JPG)
Northern Illinois University is set to join the Horizon League for most of its non-football sports, according to the agenda of a Board of Trustees special session set for Thursday.
Last month, the school joined the Mountain West Conference for football, necessitating a move out of the Mid-American Conference for its other sports. The Huskies will join both the Mountain West for football and the Horizon League for the other sports on July 1, 2026.
The Board of Trustees still has to approve the $1.4 million entrance fee to join the Horizon League. It will be split into six annual payments of $233,333.33. The Horizon does not have an annual member fee, according to the agenda.
The Horizon League includes Cleveland State, Indiana University-Indianapolis, Northern Kentucky, Oakland University, Purdue University-Fort Wayne, Robert Morris University, Detroit Mercy, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright State and Youngstown State.
The board approved a $2 million fee to join the Mountain West last month. The board has to approve all obligations of financial resources over $500,000.
At that January board meeting, athletic director Sean Frazier said he was going to manage the issues of working with the MAC to keep the non-football teams in the league. He did say at the time that there were other options, which turned into the invitation to the Horizon.
“I’m a proud MAC member, and we want to make sure that we support that being our No. 1 choice at this point,” Frazier said
At the time, NIU president Lisa Freeman called the move to the Mountain West budget-positive. Frazier followed that by saying he was very, very comfortable with the move being budget-positive.
The Horizon does not sponsor gymnastics or wrestling. According to the agenda, the university has applied for gymnastics and wrestling to remain affiliate members of the MAC. Cleveland State is an affiliate member of the MAC in wrestling.
With football in the Mountain West, the sports competing in the Horizon League will be baseball, cross country, track and field, men’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, softball, volleyball, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s soccer, and women’s tennis.