So this is from Matt Brown who had been pretty darn good in his reports of the WAC expansion.

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CSU is looking for conference affiliation with up to four conferences.
He’s hearing basketball, golf, and volleyball for MEAC with CSU paying a membership fee of 100k to help subsidize travel costs. Membership would be for a set period of time.

No mention on the other sports at this time.

CSU would also try to host a Chicagoland holiday basketball and potentially invite a MEAC school to be included.
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Note— in their FloSports deal it specified having FloSports broadcast the Windy City Invitational, which could cover multiple sports.

Obviously, not 100% but that’s what he’s hearing. Not an ideal situation, but it’s certainly better than independent. This will maintain an AQ for sports until they can prove their competitiveness to warrant full affiliation with a local conference (and even then they may have a few outlier sports).

If I learn anything more on it then I’ll share as well.

That's excellent news. As long as you get basketball hosted, that's the big one. And if you can get other sports into other conferences where numbers are needed, ie tennis or baseball, that takes MEAC travel issues out of the equation. A trip or two to Chicago for MEAC schools is very reasonable in order to buy more time to get their numbers up.

Maybe Summit for baseball or tennis, for example, might work as affiliates. Or Horizon, OVC or somewhere for soccer.

Very glad to hear CSU is having some success in their efforts. Things are going to work out OK for you guys.

Thanks for the update Josh. I appreciate it.

Didn't Chicago State cut baseball for Men's Soccer though?

Southland still needs two men’s tennis programs. Wonder if they would be willing to add Chicago State in both men’s and women’s tennis - the affiliate schools only contest the championship tourney so Cougars would only have to travel once and could keep travel limited to the region per the usual

(08-12-2021 09:40 PM)Todor Wrote:  That's excellent news. As long as you get basketball hosted, that's the big one. And if you can get other sports into other conferences where numbers are needed, ie tennis or baseball, that takes MEAC travel issues out of the equation. A trip or two to Chicago for MEAC schools is very reasonable in order to buy more time to get their numbers up.

Maybe Summit for baseball or tennis, for example, might work as affiliates. Or Horizon, OVC or somewhere for soccer.

Very glad to hear CSU is having some success in their efforts. Things are going to work out OK for you guys.

Thanks for the update Josh. I appreciate it.

Todor, I agree. Basketball will be the big one for sure. While it's not a local bus league, it's at least an opportunity and a conference where the school can compete right away and still playing in some major cities. Like you said as well, it'd be an asy trip to Chicago for the MEAC schools. And while they no longer sponsor baseball (as noted by WACfan86), Elliott Charles mentioned in his Ask the AD podcast that they're open to adding or reinstating sports depending upon the situation.

I'd imagine the Horizon, OVC, and Summit are all being considered -- perhaps even MVC depending upon the sport (men's soccer, women's tennis).

I'm definitely hopeful, and look forward to seeing how it all plays out!

(08-14-2021 08:46 AM)TexasTerror Wrote:  Southland still needs two men’s tennis programs. Wonder if they would be willing to add Chicago State in both men’s and women’s tennis - the affiliate schools only contest the championship tourney so Cougars would only have to travel once and could keep travel limited to the region per the usual

That'd work out too especially if they'd be willing to add the women's like you said. The AD is obviously trying to get creative with his approach until they're able to prove their worth.. so I wouldn't take something like this off the board at all.

(08-16-2021 09:16 PM)joshadam84 Wrote:  

(08-12-2021 09:40 PM)Todor Wrote:  That's excellent news. As long as you get basketball hosted, that's the big one. And if you can get other sports into other conferences where numbers are needed, ie tennis or baseball, that takes MEAC travel issues out of the equation. A trip or two to Chicago for MEAC schools is very reasonable in order to buy more time to get their numbers up.

Maybe Summit for baseball or tennis, for example, might work as affiliates. Or Horizon, OVC or somewhere for soccer.

Very glad to hear CSU is having some success in their efforts. Things are going to work out OK for you guys.

Thanks for the update Josh. I appreciate it.

Todor, I agree. Basketball will be the big one for sure. While it's not a local bus league, it's at least an opportunity and a conference where the school can compete right away and still playing in some major cities. Like you said as well, it'd be an asy trip to Chicago for the MEAC schools. And while they no longer sponsor baseball (as noted by WACfan86), Elliott Charles mentioned in his Ask the AD podcast that they're open to adding or reinstating sports depending upon the situation.

I'd imagine the Horizon, OVC, and Summit are all being considered -- perhaps even MVC depending upon the sport (men's soccer, women's tennis).

I'm definitely hopeful, and look forward to seeing how it all plays out!

Yeah, I was just throwing out names of sports as examples of what would be seeking homes, not about baseball per se. I'd forgotten your exact baseball situation.

Looking at sports, track and cross country, and golf can just show up to a conference championship event, so maybe the MEAC would let the Cougs in as well because it won't require anything from any of their members.

Volleyball, soccer and tennis are all that require a regular season schedule be played, assuming you get basketball in. Volleyball might be out of luck, but soccer and tennis have good chances at a Midwest conference home for associate membership. I remain optimistic for you!

The only sport in which we are remotely competitive at the D1 level is volleyball. The Great Lakes Valley Conference is a D-2 conference which already has a strong Illinois base and has schools with enrollments comparable to CSU. According to Wikipedia, of the 15 full members, only 8 of them have football. I just see no future in being perpetually horrendous at the D1 level with no reason for real hope that things will ever get appreciably better.

(12-02-2021 10:48 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  The only sport in which we are remotely competitive at the D1 level is volleyball. The Great Lakes Valley Conference is a D-2 conference which already has a strong Illinois base and has schools with enrollments comparable to CSU. According to Wikipedia, of the 15 full members, only 8 of them have football. I just see no future in being perpetually horrendous at the D1 level with no reason for real hope that things will ever get appreciably better.

If you're suggesting Chicago State to look at going D2 and the GLVC, they can't. For now at least. The GLVC would require CSU to (re-)add baseball and softball as those are 2 of the 7 core sports every member must sponsor. For football, the GLVC and the GLIAC both would be happy to add more teams.