(07-16-2020 09:13 AM)Mav Wrote:  

(07-15-2020 10:33 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  Does this mean that the Summit League won't need their Eastern Illinois soccer affiliate, outside the Summit footprint but inside the MAC footprint, at precisely the same time that the MAC needs a new soccer affiliate?

You'd be dumb to shed any affiliate member when your membership count is near the minimum, especially when we haven't seen the full impact of COVID. If I'm running a low major conference, there isn't an affiliation call I won't answer.

If Eastern Illinois's affiliation agreement is running out in 2021, 2022 or 2023, it might not be a matter of "shed", just a matter of moving to an opportunity for more bus trips to games. They joined in 2017, so if they signed a five or six year agreement, that would put it right in that frame.

It also sounds fairly likely that Bowling Green will be playing the Tommies in hockey in the not too distant future, with the CCHA Commissioner last month in a podcast interview saying

Quote:“They’ll have to weigh their options and what’s best for St. Thomas. Obviously we would love to have them be a part of our league because of their location and footprint, their academics and the potential for them to have a very strong college hockey Division I program.”