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By now, the idea of regional conferences in college football is long gone. Conference realignment killed that dream years ago and it only got more absurd last season with USC, Oregon, UCLA and Washington joining the Big Ten and Stanford, SMU and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But Friday’s conference realignment news may have, somehow, been the most absurd yet when it comes to distance between schools. Chris Vannini of The Athletic reports that Northern Illinois is set to join the Mountain West Conference as football-only member starting in 2026.
Now, never mind the fact that Northern Illinois University, which is located in DeKalb, Illinois, is neither in the mountains nor the west. Somehow, that is the least egregious part of all of this. But the Huskies join a conference that includes the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii. Hawaii has been in the conference as a football-only member since the WAC dissolved in 2012. But the Rainbow Warriors will become a full-time member in 2026.
👏 Conference 👏 Game👏 pic.twitter.com/CAUsMaL9zA
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) January 3, 2025
New Mountain West Foes Northern Illinois And Hawaii Are Insanely Far Apart
The distance from Hawaii’s campus in Honolulu to NIU’s in DeKalb is a jaw-dropping 6,747 kilometers. For us red-blooded Americans, that is just a hair under 4,200 miles. For comparison’s sake, the contiguous United States is about 2,800 miles wide from east to west and 1,650 miles wide from north to south.
I mean, what are we even doing here?
Thankfully, the teams will only ever face one another in football. And we’re sure the Huskies players are looking forward to a mid-to-late fall trip to Honolulu. But there’s just no possible way this is the most sensible way for college football to proceed.
Northern Illinois is coming on an 8-5 season where it picked up an historic victory over Notre Dame in South Bend. Hawaii, meanwhile, went 5-7 in its third year under head coach legendary alum Timmy Chang.