Dear Huskie Nation, 

Although it might not feel like it with the warmer than normal temperatures in DeKalb lately, the fall season is well and truly underway at NIU.  

Our Huskie Volleyball team is off to a tremendous 7-2 start, its best since 2011. Coach D'Amore's team has won a pair of tournaments and begins MAC play at home next Thursday and Friday against Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.  

Football is back in Huskie Stadium for important back-to-back home games beginning next Saturday (Sept. 27) against San Diego State and on Saturday, October 4 against Miami as we celebrate NIU's 118th Homecoming. Men's and women's soccer seasons are also both well underway and are entering the early stages of conference play while cross country is also two meets into their season as well. 

We hope to see all of Huskie Nation packing Huskie Stadium for football, Victor E. Court for volleyball and all of our home venues to support our student-athletes in competition. The passionate support and home-field advantage that you, Huskie Nation, provide can help make the difference for our teams as they compete and represent NIU.  

As the collegiate athletics landscape continues to evolve, I have been engaged in meetings, both in my capacity as a sitting FBS athletic director and as President of NACDA, with other directors of athletics and administrators regarding numerous issues concerning playing rules, NCAA governance and voting issues, and legislative components, including the SCORE Act and the Sports Broadcasting Act. It is clear these issues will affect institutions that are resourced like ours differently than they affect higher-resourced institutions and therefore it is critical that we band together as institutions to make our voice heard during this transition to a new era of college athletics. Failure to do so will make that transition much more difficult so we, as G6 institutions, must take a "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" approach. 

Huskies Invest, our annual week of giving, is right around the corner. Huskie Invest will take place October 20-24 and continues to be a critical component of our fundraising and sustainability efforts. Huskies Invest has raised over $1 million each of the past four years and our goal is to exceed that mark once again this year. During Huskies Invest, gifts can be made to any individual sport program, NIU Recreation or to other specific areas and projects. For more information, call the Huskie Athletic Fund at 815-753-1923. 

In addition to our traditional fundraising efforts, we continue to explore better ways to increase revenues and the experience for our students, staff, supporters and donors, and that includes private capital opportunities. With our moves to the Mountain West and Horizon League, we have had individuals, corporate sponsors and others interested in investing in NIU Athletics and we are going through processes of exploration to maximize all of the assets we have available to us. We continue to have a need, in particular with the House settlement, rev share and NIL, and it is important to capitalize on the momentum we have as we change conferences and open up new markets that give us the visibility that a lot of investors would like to partner with.
 
Speaking of those new conferences, that transition process for next year is already underway as Deputy Athletic Director/Executive Associate Athletic Director John Cheney is leading our transition team into the Mountain West and Executive Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator Courtney Vinson is leading the Horizon League transition team. We are engaged in meetings and conversations with both conferences as we learn and understand the processes and nuances of our new conference homes. Those meetings have been very positive, and we are excited about the future. 

On the recreation side, we had an outstanding event this past Monday as we opened a new Women's Workout Center at the NIU Recreation Center. I was pleased to be joined by President Freeman for the ribbon cutting ceremony for this new, important space. The NIU Recreation Center has undergone many significant improvements in recent years and membership is available to not just NIU students and faculty, but also alumni and community members.  

Another exciting ribbon-cutting took place this week as Rock Valley Credit Union opened its newest location in the DeKalb/Sycamore community. Rock Valley came onboard as a partner with NIU Athletics in April and we appreciate that relationship and their support. I urge all of Huskie Nation to support our partners and sponsors whenever possible. 

Finally, I would like to offer my congratulations on the recent news of the increases in enrollment. NIU's freshman class increased by 22 percent over last fall and is the second largest freshman class since 2014, while total enrollment has increased 4.3 percent from last fall. A strong and vibrant student body is critical to the success of all elements of campus life, and it is wonderful to see the efforts of so many campus constituents pay off with enrollment increases.  

As always, it is a great and exciting time to be a Huskie and I hope to see you in DeKalb showing your Huskie Pride at our many upcoming home events! 

Go Huskies! 

Sean T. Frazier 

Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation 
Northern Illinois University