The drive from DeKalb, Illinois to Carbondale is a rather lengthy one. By a cursory look online, the trip by car takes about 5½ hours. That’s not only over half a work day, it’s also about the length necessary to jump two rungs in the college baseball world, all things being equal. Today, I look at both teams’ prospects for success in 2019.
Northern Illinois University has an enrollment of a bit over 13,000. Southern’s has dropped to a bit below 13,000. As such, numbers-wise, they are rather similar. The Missouri Valley is a far more legitimate baseball conference because their schools are much more southern than the Mid-American Conference’s.