The world of college athletics has been changing for the last several years, and for a time, it looked like the Mid-American Conference was safe from realignment.

That changed when Northern Illinois decided to join the Mountain West as a football-only member in the beginning of January. With the rest of their sports looking for a new home, they went back to stay regional.

On Thursday, the Huskies opted to move their basketball and other programs to the Horizon League. And with it, one of the more interesting cases for the future of college athletics presented itself.

Various media outlets, and even fans, have tried to find ways of making college athletics work in the 2020s and beyond. Since Southern California and UCLA elected to join the Big Ten, the question of how to balance football’s importance to university budgets and health of the rest of the sport has been at the forefront of discussions.

Some thought it could be a good idea for the Trojans and Bruins to only join the Big Ten as football- and basketball-only members, leaving their Olympic sports in the Pac-12, and by extension, keeping the conference off life support.

They decided to join the league as full members, but UNI could be a good test case in their place.

When the Huskies join the Mountain West in 2026, their nearest conference foe will be Wyoming. That’s 945 miles, or a drive lasting 13 hours and 35 minutes. The other sports will have it a lot easier due to the Horizon League’s footprint in the Midwest.

This is where the test comes into play. Could a smaller or mid-level university with a $24 million athletic budget in 2022, according to USA Today, chase the football money long term with the rest of its sports operating in a regional conference?

On the surface, this might seem like an easy “yes.” After all, the sport with the best funding at a university would be the one traveling the most. Meanwhile, the sports like tennis, soccer and baseball would stay regional.

But NIU will provide an extreme variable for the football travel budget.

In addition to having to travel roughly 1,000 miles for its road games, NIU will also have to make biannual trips to Hawaii, a dream trip for a November football team but also a logistical outlier that the majority of college programs never have to face.

At what point is the travel too much? How will this affect the overall financial health of a smaller university?

Larger athletic departments like USC and UCLA could afford to travel nationally in all sports. There are smaller departments in the new Big 12, which has teams in Florida and West Virginia, but the Mountaineers, Cincinnati Bearcats and University of Central Florida Knights only have to travel to states like Texas and Utah. Schools like Hawaii are a different animal.

Bringing it locally, it provides an opponent that Youngstown State has rarely played. It’s also a new face for fans of Horizon League teams to cheer against during home games.

The YSU men’s basketball team has only played the Huskies twice, going 1-3 in four meetings in 1992-93 and 1993-94 when the programs were a part of the Mid-Continent Conference. The women’s team during that stretch was 0-4 against the Huskies.

Splitting the football program from the other sports might be a way for smaller schools to generate a little more revenue while not overexerting athletes in other sports. It could also generate more regional interest in the other sports, and as a result, keep alive or lead to the creation of more regional conferences.

Only time will tell if things will work out for the Huskies moving forward and if this is the beginning of a new structure for the future of college athletics.

It’s definitely something to keep an eye on over the next several years until the results of the test come back.

Dan Hiner is the sports editor for The Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle. You can reach him via email at dhiner@tribtoday.com.