Evans on Sports Blog

My Yahoo Print
Tuesday, Jul 20 2010 03:14 PM

Div. I likely subject of Wednesday press conference

By Evans On Sports

CSUB President Horace Mitchell has announced that he'll be heading up a press conference at 3 p.m. Wednesday (July 21, 2010) with the subject matter "regarding 2010-11 athletics."

The most likely subject matter of this press conference is to announce the NCAA has officially granted CSUB full Division I membership with no restrictions; that CSUB has fulfilled all requirements laid down by the NCAA for full Division I membership and has successfully concluded its four-year transition from NCAA Division II status.

The immediate benefit of this (and what CSUB's coaches, administration, fans, and anyone else with a vested interest in this will focus on) is that CSUB will be "postseason eligible" across the board in all sports. Of course, CSUB athletics must be good enough to earn postseason berths in a given sport, but at least the Roadrunners will be in the conversation should any of their teams and/or individuals have good enough seasons in 2010-11 (and beyond) to warrant such honors.

This assumed announcement, while significant, has been anticipated throughout the process because CSUB has done everything the NCAA has required and hasn't had any glitches that would extend the transition period.

Should the press conference delve into another direction, perhaps it would deal with the CSUB conference situation. As a Division I independent in the majority of sports, it's tough to get to the postseason, it's difficult forming schedules (particularly home contests) and the travel costs for more road contests creates greater expense.

CSUB has targeted the Big West Conference as its preferred home when a conference home is found, but as of earlier this summer, there had been no movement in that direction. With so many conferences facing changes (teams switching to other conferences; other schools coming in), Mitchell said he was content to play a wait-and-see game with regards to CSUB's BWC hopes until the dust settles.

Will Mitchell formally announce that CSUB has begun its quest to join the BWC using official channels? Or that the BWC has extended an invitation for membership? I'm guessing that hasn't happened yet.

But we'll see on Wednesday.

My Yahoo Print