Primarily a collection of news links about all 12 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
In New York City before World War II,
all oral leases ended on May 1. On the same day, a vast number of the city’s renters would pick up and
change residences. This phenomenon was known, appropriately enough, as
“Moving Day.”
Moving Day may have died out in the Big Apple, but a version of it persists
in the world of college athletics. On July 1, athletic directors everywhere
will ditch their 2025–26 calendars in favor of 2026–27. With the start of
the new academic year, over two dozen schools playing FBS football and/or
Division I basketball will change conferences.
Here’s a look at the programs changing conferences Wednesday in either
basketball or football, followed by a brief note on each.
Every Division I school switching conferences on July 1 in basketball or FBS
football
SCHOOL
OLD CONFERENCE
NEW CONFERENCE
Northern Illinois
MAC
Horizon League (most sports), Mountain West (football only)
Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois was a stalwart in the MAC, but is leaving its longtime
conference with football heading to the Mountain West. | Jamie
Sabau-Imagn Images
UNI is leaving the MAC for the Mountain West in football and the Horizon
League in most sports after 29 years. This is not a wholly unfamiliar move
for the Huskies, who’ve been highly successful on the gridiron in the MAC:
they played football in the Big West for three years in the 1990s, and three
years in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League) in
the same decade.
