I really just don't understand the Mountain West's play here. NIU can't be adding that much in value by themselves. Unless they're being fed some B.S. about the Chicago media market, I just don't get this move at all. NIU will bankrupt themselves with travel costs and there's no way in hell the MW is going to be a high value TV target now that they've lost the top half of their league.
If it’s football only, they won’t be bankrupt flying by charter to 6 games.
But they're banking on the assumption that the MW will be worth a lot more than the MAC. I think that's still up for debate as they've lost Boise, Fresno, CSU, USU and SDSU. Their conference's value took a huge hit. And potentially, they're going to have to find a landing spot for the rest of their athletics programs if the MAC kicks them out, which could potentially add more to travel costs.