Northeast Conference Adds Chicago State for the 2024-25 Season

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A scorecard is still necessary to keep track of the coming and going of schools across the landscape of the NCAA. The latest move involved the Northeast Conference, which has been busy during the fall months. Having already lost Merrimack and Sacred Heart to the MAAC conference, the league is trying to fill its league memberships for next year. One spot has been filled as Chicago State University will be joining the NEC as a full member for the 2024-25 academic year.

The move was made official on December 5 and will go into effect on July 1, 2024. It will bring the number of schools in the league to eight. Located on the south side of Chicago, the school will offer 15 varsity intercollegiate programs to the conference. They include men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and tennis, as well as indoor and outdoor track and field, and women’s volleyball. The school will be granted immediate eligibility into all league championships and NCAA tournaments. Chicago State, which was founded in 1867, is the sole predominantly black institution in Illinois as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.

The school boasts an enrollment of almost 3,000 students and would seem to be a perfect fit with those schools already in the NEC. The school’s Division I history dates back to the 1984-85 academic year. This will be the fifth conference the school has been a member of. For the last two years, Chicago has operated as an independent institution. There has also been a fundraising effort established in the hopes of adding football to the mix as an FCS program.

Some highlights from the sports history of Chicago State include the 2011 women’s basketball team that earned a spot in the Women’s Basketball Invitational. The men’s basketball program won the Great West Conference in 2013 and played postseasons in the collegeinsider.com tournament. In 2019, the men’s 4X100 relay team won gold at the WAC Tournament Outdoor Track & Field Championship. In 2021, the men’s outdoor track team earned Honorable Mention All-American status after qualifying for their first-ever NCAA Championship meet. The women’s volleyball team has been a part of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship in two of the last three years.

Another plus for the Northeast Conference is with the addition of Chicago State University the league now has a foothold in three key areas of this country. Boston, Chicago, and New York City. This will help them in a variety of ways including marketing, and recruiting, among others. Chicago State President Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott described the Northeast Conference as “the best fit for our University and athletic programs. We look forward to a great conference relationship and beginning a new era of sports programming.” It does not hurt that the school ranks #1 in tuition affordability. Dr. Monique Carroll the director of athletics at the school said “NEC stood out because of its mission to support students-athletics in competition, in the classroom, and the community”.

A little history on the Cougars. The school is the oldest public university in the Chicago Metropolitan area. Chicago State offers 70 undergraduate and graduate degree-granting and non-degree programs spread out over four campus sites. It serves as the prominent community anchor and civic space on the greater south side of Chicago by leading a multitude of athletic, educational, cultural, and recreational activities.