(05-18-2020 06:23 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 06:19 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  Forget budgets and teams. How long will Chicago State's athletic director last?

Fired local celebrity Chris Zorich for a guy who doesn’t even know the requirements for Division 1 membership.

While I would love the baseball program to stick around, if it’s not financially viable then I will accept that. Especially if it means saving the rest of the department at this time. I personally believe this administration is much better suited to get Chicago State in a financially responsible and competitive position than Zorich. Zorich may have been a local celebrity and administration experience at a lower tier institution, but his experience is no comparison to Charles’ experience at the D1 level. Plus, Charles has hired some quality senior administrators — so I’m still very optimistic for the future.

It had been mentioned about other team sports in this thread and the other and I’m sure the department has thought about this. So I’m not going to jump on that bandwagon in bashing them. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hear any sort of presentation in the last meeting on the subject to see what’s all being discussed. For all we know, the department had a presentation to go over.. only to be ruined by immaturity. But on the note of other team sports:

Football- not realistic.

Wrestling, lacrosse, hockey, water polo, men’s volleyball— don’t really see any of those happening.

Men’s soccer— Hasn’t been recently mentioned in the budget requests but it was an initial requirement for their WAC membership.. And has been budgeted in the past so who knows.

From looking at their EADA (https://www.gocsucougars.com/services/do...9_1_.pdf), baseball had expenses of 605k with revenue of 312k. 28 players reported. Women’s soccer had expenses of $453k and revenue of $381k. 24 players.

So there very well could be a business move in play if soccer is more sustainable. They’ve made budget requests for a soccer field On campus and track renovations.

I trust that whatever decision is ultimately made has been well thought out and is in the best interest of the school and athletic department. I’m hopeful there’s something that can be done to keep the program.. but at this point even if they did they’d have next to no roster. It may be best to suspend the program for now in hopes it can be returned down the road. Other schools have honored scholarships for those who want to stay.. I’d imagine CSU is doing the same. Once again— we weren’t able to hear any details. We will just have to see what goes on.