Unity, belief: NIU AD Sean Frazier sees roadmap for smaller schools to have success in changing NCAA landscape

NIU athletic director Sean Frazier still gets fired up thinking about the Huskies’ upset of Notre Dame last year.

“Do you think anybody gave us a rat’s [behind] chance of winning that game?” Frazier said.

“Here’s the deal. What if I told you we went into South Bend and won that game and dominated offense, defense and special teams. ... Not one of them had any damn doubt. If you can take that spirit, good things happen when that happens.”

Frazier said that kind of belief is important for him as an athletic director in a changing NCAA landscape. With players able to be compensated directly by schools, small universities are struggling to keep up with the larger schools.

But his belief that NIU can be as relevant as ever came in January when the university joined the Mountain West Conference for football and the Horizon League for other sports.

“If I gave up, we’d never be in the Mountain West,” Frazier said. “We’d never be in the Horizon. I would have packed it up, I would have gotten in the fetal position, and I would be underneath this desk, and the thing would be over.”

The move from the Mid-American Conference has created the opportunity for more revenue and reduced expenses as the school looks for ways to create a sustainable model to compensate its athletes. It’s given him faith.

He said there’s a pep in his step these days, even with questions looming about how smaller schools can keep up with larger ones.

“If you had asked me prior to our decoupling of football, I would have said it’s going to be a little tougher than I thought,” Frazier said. “But because of understanding who we are, and the vision of our president and board and the hard work of our people, we have a shot to continue those electric moments just like Notre Dame.”

He thinks the current model can work for Group of Six schools.

“I believe it’s sustainable if you look yourself in the mirror,” Frazier said. “I think when you try to chase something, maybe if you’re a G6 and you’re chasing a Power Four model, it’s not sustainable. I think if you throw your hands up and say ‘Hey, we can’t keep a roster. We can’t keep up with the financial outbidding or the roster purging,’ it becomes not sustainable.”

Frazier said there are two things he would like to see in order to make things as competitive as possible for the Group of Six schools. The first is federal regulation when it comes to Name, Image and Likeness.

Current rules vary from state to state. There’s also legislation in the House on the issue. There’s also an executive order issued by President Trump in late July that creates a framework.

“I’m fine playing against a roster that costs $20 or $30 million,” Frazier said. “We’ll see how good you recruit. We’ll see how good that money is. But when you’re doing that, and doing other things, and doing other things again, that’s not the right way. Then it becomes an unfair enterprise.”

Frazier, current president of the National Association of the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, said the second thing he’d like to see is unity among the Group of Six schools.

He said without unification, collaboration and partnership, the Group of Six will cease to exist.

“It’s an unfortunate scenario as a Group of Six institution, because when you split the pie, you fight among yourselves, you divide, you’re conquered,” Frazier said. “It’s clear the Power Four institutions, or Power Two depending on how you look at things, are very organized in what they do. And for us to be truly competitive and be able to continue to serve our constituencies, we need to unite.”

As NIU is set to join the Mountain West, that league and the Pac-12 are engaged in a lawsuit over exit fees the MWC is assessing to Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State for leaving as the Pac-12 tries to rebuild.

The exodus of those schools led to NIU joining the league.

“It’s unfortunate that you have this litigation, but it’s inevitable because the Mountain West didn’t want to hang it up,” Frazier said. “They wanted to continue doing what they wanted to do. I think Gloria [Nevarez, MWC commissioner] and the Mountain West did a phenomenal job of putting brands together when people thought they were going to dissolve, and they didn’t. And it’s the same thing with the Pac-12.”