DeKALB, Ill. – Home games versus San Diego State, Miami (Ohio) and Ball State and road contests at Maryland, Mississippi State and defending league champion Ohio highlight Northern Illinois University’s 2025 football schedule announced Wednesday.
NIU, one of the 30 winningest Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams in the country over the last 15 seasons, comes into 2025 after finishing last season with its second straight bowl championship – a 28-20 double overtime win over Fresno State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl – to complete an 8-5 campaign.
“The thing that stands out for me [with the 2025 schedule] is the two trophy games [The Mallory Cup vs Miami and Bronze Stalk Trophy vs Ball State],” said Thomas Hammock, who enters his seventh season as head coach at his alma mater in 2025. “Those are always a big deal for our program, and we have the opportunity to play for both trophies; we play both teams that played in the MAC Championship [Miami and Ohio] game last year, and we play at Toledo. It’s a very good schedule. I like the balance of the home and away games. We look forward to playing our best football one week at a time.”
The Huskies open the 60th season of Huskie Stadium on Saturday, August 30 versus Holy Cross before battling Maryland (Sept. 6) and Mississippi State (Sept. 20) on the road in search of their 20th Boneyard Win with an open date between those games.
The Huskies and Terps will play for the fourth time with the last meeting in 2004 a 23-20 win by No. 22 Maryland in College Park. The previous season, NIU had one of its most memorable victories in Huskie Stadium, a 20-13 overtime win over the 15th-ranked Terps, the highest ranked team NIU had ever defeated prior to the Huskies’ historic 16-14 victory over No. 5 Notre Dame last year.
NIU will play Holy Cross and Mississippi State for the first time. The non-conference season wraps up on Saturday, Sept. 27 with a visit from San Diego State in the seventh game all-time between the teams, and the first since 2017.
“[Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation] Sean Frazier and our administration do a great job of putting a non-conference schedule together,” Hammock said. “Having a chance to play a Big 10 and a SEC opponent, two of the premier leagues in the country, are opportunities we look forward to. Then we get a quality opponent in San Diego State here at home before starting conference play.”
NIU opens its 39th (overall) and 29th consecutive season of Mid-American Conference play on Saturday, October 4 versus Miami (Ohio) in the school’s 118th Homecoming game. NIU’s Homecoming celebration is the oldest in the state of Illinois, while the game versus Miami also honors the late Bill Mallory, the former MU and NIU head coach who led both teams to MAC Championships during a hall of fame career, with the winner claiming the Mallory Cup.
MAC play continues with games at Eastern Michigan (Oct. 11) and at defending MAC Champion Ohio (Oct. 18) before Ball State comes to NIU with the Bronze Stalk Trophy on the line on Saturday, October 25.
November #MACtion gets underway with the two teams that helped coin the name as NIU and Toledo meet in Toledo on Wednesday, November 5. The Huskies take on new MAC member UMass on Wednesday, November 12 in Massachusetts before returning home for a Tuesday night (November 18) date with Western Michigan in Huskie Stadium. NIU wraps up its 124th season of football – 57th as an FBS program – and final season in the MAC at home versus Kent State on Friday, November 28. The Huskies announced on January 7, 2025, that NIU football will compete in the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026.
The 2025 MAC Championship game will be played on Saturday, December 6 at Ford Field in Detroit, where NIU has won five of its six MAC titles.
March 5, 2025
