Post by Commissioner on Feb 9, 2022 14:59:28 GMT -5
This sucks if you're an impacted UIC athlete who did nothing wrong, same as it sucked that U-D basketball players (who did nothing wrong) were ineligible for the Horizon Tourney because of a delayed handout of an Academic Penalty that pre-dated their matriculation. In reading the Horizon League release on the topic, there is just one difference: in UIC's case, the reason for the penalty is the decision (and quick league departure) that was decided on by your school administration. In U-D's case, it happened because of a delayed decision by the NCAA (our involvement was hiring/firing coaches a few years earlier that resulted in too many players leaving the program all at once).
This might sound cold, but I don't really care about the other Horizon League members anymore. We need to worry about our school first and use this League as a stepping stone to a better league. That's it. Example: UIC has traditionally the strongest softball program in the Horizon, by a wide margin. If their absence allows us to win a softball championship this spring, I say Go Titans!
As Tom says, college sports these days are pretty much "every man--er, school--for himself, er, itself!" Certainly that's what UIC did when it decided to pursue and then accept the MVC invite, and nobody blames them for that. I do note that HL promo material still cites as conference achievements things done by Butler and others. I'd perhaps be OK with UIC playing--because it is tough on their athletes--but an agreement that any revenue they get from the conference tournament or the NCAA, including their own gate, goes 100% to the league and its remaining teams. Be interesting to see how they'd react to that.