DI-FBS is the school MUST receive an invitation to join an existing DI-FBS conference. Liberty received a hardship waiver from the NCAA for religious reasons and in part because it is a private school. The NCAA recently denied Sacramento State's request to switch to DI-FBS without a formal invitation from an existing DI-FBS conference. I wasn't surprised by that decision because Sacramento State is a public school and public schools will have an extremely difficult time satisfying any of the hardship waiver criteria. WRT your comment that more schools are "opting in," a factor you may not be considering is a lot of these moves were announced prior to the recent court ruling. It may become an important factor because schools may not have an idea of the true cost that comes with "opting in." As of today, the Ivy League, the three military academies, Montana, and NE-Omaha are the only DI schools to "opt out" at this time. Even though the deadline has already passed, I do think over time we will see more schools change their mind because it will become too costly for them to sustain it over a long period of time. Also, the recent court ruling did not completely settle the Title IX issue, which is still the giant elephant in the room, and could force schools to rethink their position on this issue. Plus, there is a minimum participation requirement to justify having multiple subdivisions. If either subdivision's numbers drops down to a certain number, then consolidation may not be an option. Since there is still a lot of unknowns/moving parts, it may be hard to reach any definitive conclusions in this dust storm. One reason I thought Northern Illinois has the potential is DeKalb is a suburb of Chicago. I don't think Northern Illinois' value can really be determined based on its time in the MAC because the conference is...well...the MAC and all the perceptions that come with it. If Northern Illinois does well in the MWC, then I do think there is potential for at least the perception of Northern Illinois' "value" to change. If Northern Illinois is perceived to be more valuable, then it could mean they are more attractive to conferences like the ACC, Big XII, or Pac-12 who want to have a physical presence in Illinois/Chicago market for whatever reason. At least I think Northern Illinois sees the move to the MWC as a potential stepping stone to something better in the future. Particularly when factoring in the unknowns/moving parts.