Northern Illinois will move its basketball and other non-football programs to the Horizon League in 2026, the Board of Trustees approved in a vote Thursday.

The move is the result of NIU recently announcing it will join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member in 2026. By leaving the MAC in football, NIU needed to find a home for other sports, although it has applied to keep wrestling and gymnastics as affiliate members of the MAC because the Horizon League does not sponsor those sports.

The entrance fee for joining the Horizon League will cost NIU $1.4 million over six annual installments.

It will not be the first time NIU’s non-football programs have played outside the MAC. The Huskies left the MAC and became independent in 1986, and their non-football programs later joined the Mid-Continent Conference and Midwest Collegiate Conference in the 1990s, while football went to the Big West. NIU returned to the MAC in 1997.

This year’s NIU men’s basketball team is 5-23 overall and 1-14 in the MAC, missing the cut to make the MAC basketball tournament. The women’s basketball team is 12-15 overall.

Northern Illinois’ board previously authorized $2 million for an entrance fee to join the Mountain West in football. The Mountain West will pay the Huskies an incentive payment to join the league, according to a membership agreement obtained by The Athletic. NIU will also receive money to help pay its exit fee from the MAC. The exact figures were redacted in the agreement, which was obtained through a public records request.

(Photo of David Coit, left: Jeffrey Becker / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)