The Horizon League released a statement Wednesday confirming that the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) athletic teams would not be permitted to compete in their respective championships competitions this season due to the school accepting an invitation to join the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) in 2022-23.
UIC accepted an invite to join the MVC in late January, and under the Horizon League’s current bylaws (Bylaw 2.5.3.3), would’ve had to have notified the league by July 1, 2021, in order to ensure their athletes could compete in their respective 2022 championship competitions.
UIC Deputy Athletics Director Frank Cuervo told SwimSwam that the school had been “above board and transparent” with the Horizon League in the months leading up to their decision to move on, and made a specific request to have relief from that one specific bylaw in order for the student-athletes to go unaffected.
“The one piece of relief we asked for was to not impact our, in our particular case its 13 programs total and 225 student-athletes that are impacted,” Cuervo said, adding that the school has followed all of the other restrictions in place, including the school’s sports medicine staff no longer able to participate in the league’s health and wellness decisions.
“We said hey look, this isn’t their decision, they didn’t have a vote in whether or not we made this move, that was an institutional decision. And we believe, we still believe we made the right one.
“But we said hey, this is a bylaw that’s outdated. It’s a law made by the executives (presidents of the universities).”
Cuervo said the bylaw is one that can be easily waived by the presidents, and when UIC requested, weren’t given the opportunity to fully present their case in front of the Board.
“It’s clearly one that’s been overlooked,” he said of the bylaw. “It’s been addressed before. There’s absolutely nothing preventing them from waiving this particular plank.
“Our jobs are to help provide opportunities and give additional opportunities for growth and enrichment to student-athletes, not to take them away.”
Cuervo was surprised that when the news was delivered to the school, the league openly acknowledged the impact the decision would have on the student-athletes.
“When the news was delivered to us, via (Northern Kentucky) President (Ashish) Vaidya and (Horizon League) Commissioner (Julie) Roe Lach, they jointly said they were ‘keenly aware’ of the impact that it would have on our student-athletes and elected to make this decision and go this direction either way,” Cuervo said.
“I’ve been involved in issues of tone-deafness before, this one takes the cake.”
He also said UIC wasn’t told what the voting results actually were, if it was unanimous or if there were any dissenting opionions. All the school heard was that the presidents voted to uphold the bylaw.
The fact that the student-athletes are being denied the opportunity to compete in their championships just piles on to the numerous difficulties they’ve faced over the last two seasons amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now to put this on top of it, it just doesn’t sit right,” he said. “It’s clearly punitive toward the university and does not take into account the welfare of the student-athletes, which is the number one core value of the league. The league which we helped build and support. Now we have to wonder, were we just giving lip service all these years, or did that really mean something?”
One of the groups the news hits the hardest is the UIC swimming and diving teams, who were preparing to compete at the Horizon League Championships next week (Feb. 16-19).
“In this particular case with our swim team, it’s even more egregious. They’re literally loading the bus, or almost loading the bus, to go compete. And to have the rug pulled out from under them, on something that was out of their control, and who does this help? Who does this decision help? The other punitive matters or measures that are in place, we’ve complied with them. One hundred percent. We haven’t contested one of them—we may now.
“Because this just seems to be an egregious act against our students and we’re going to stand up and fight for them and exhaust every opportunity to put the train back on the tracks.”
Cuervo said the school is looking at all options moving forward, both legally and in the court of public opinion. Though in the case of the swim team, with the championships less than a week away, injunctive relief would likely be the only way they’d be able to compete.
“It’s even more punitive for someone like that,” Cuervo said of the swimmers, who have based their entire season around this one competition.
“I’m really surprised. I would’ve never dreamed that they would respond in such a small and petty way. That’s been disappointing to see.”
Or don’t leave your conference before your contract is up??
Athletic Directors passing the buck on this is so rich.
UIC swimmers and families should be angry… at UIC. I do wish the Horizon league would let these athletes compete, but UIC knew the rules… and the consequences. I hope this hurts recruiting: look how much the school cares about their student athletes.
ww.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2022/02/10/illinois-chicago-breaks-rules-horizon-league-uic-basketball/6740655001/
“We’re not thinking about our kids and what’s in their best interest, but if you don’t care more about our kids than we do, you’re a POS and selfish” -UIC AD
“There’s absolutely nothing preventing them from waiving this particular plank.”
There is also absolutely nothing that forces them to waive this particular plank. Bylaws are meant to be followed, otherwise, why are they written to begin with?
The UIC swimmers have every right to feel angry about this, but the AD absolutely does not–in fact, he’s one of the people the swimmers should be cynical towards. He is one of the people that have the responsibility to know that this could’ve happened, and weigh this before making the decision to leave.
I’m no lawyer, but I’d guess that their legal case would be flimsier than wet copy paper. He says that during the process, he “made a specific… Read more »
I hope someone is entertaining the possibility of letting them swim exhibition. Even if it’s prelims & time trials only, at least they can have some tapered “championship” swims.
When I was in college, there was a school in our conference that didn’t participate in my sport at the varsity level, but they had a club team that was allowed to compete in the conference meet on a non-scoring basis. They were good guys, and I don’t think anybody objected to their participation.
They can go to another conference meet (how about the MVC?) or a last chance meet
ISCA has a Senior Cup meet in St. Petersburg, Florida. The whole team could come to that meet.
Just exposes the fact that college athletics, now more than ever, is all about money.
I feel terrible for the swimmers, and the decision probably doesn’t benefit anyone, but UIC knew exactly what would happen if they decided to change conferences. Actions have consequences, and I’m sure that not being able to compete in conference championships was clearly stated.
Bylaws are changed every year and I know some are not enforced to the letter of the law. If a waiver process is established why not let the process move through proper channels, why cash the check first and wait to tell students athletes they are out. Why not tell UIC that the bylaw was going to be enforced when there was a possibility of a conference change. For student athletes these past two years have been extraordinary and relief from this bylaw is warranted. Yes UIC knew this may happen but damn have some compassion. If Presidents walked in the shoes of students athletics they could not possibly enforce this bylaw.
They did tell UIC it would be imposed. Consistently. UIC just couldn’t wait to screw over the other teams in the conference.
It sucks for the students – UIC should have absolutely offered a bigger payout to protect these students. They didn’t. UIC should have worked to find a way to ensure they’d be held harmless. They didn’t. UIC did this for UIC. Period.