Fontbonne is closing

Started by Kuiper, March 11, 2024, 05:09:16 PM

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Kuiper

Since there doesn't appear to be any recent topic for Fontbonne or the SLIAC, I thought I would post this as a stand-alone.  It is cross-posted from the main D3boards thread on the Future of Division III:

Fontbonne in St. Louis announced that they are closing and selling their campus to Wash U, which will lease it back to them for next year while they wind up operations after the 2024-2025 academic year as part of their teach-out plan

https://www.fontbonne.edu/fontbonne-university-to-close-after-summer-2025/

Here is some insight on how this might affect their sports teams for next year:

https://x.com/d3hoops/status/1767235981772525800?s=20

QuoteWord from Fontbonne is they expect to field their athletics teams next year, but they are not allowed to bring in any new student-athletes. Based on how the year went at Cabrini this year, it seems unlikely that they will field all of their teams.

That will produce a Cabrini-like last season effect for these teams, while also creating some short rosters.  I'm guessing that part of their teach-out plan is to revoke admissions for freshman for next year.

For men's soccer specifically, it looks like they have 20 players who were not seniors or graduate students last year and therefore could return.  I'm assuming none of the seniors will return for a Covid year, but you never know.  More likely they end up with fewer than 20 players since the players who were freshman and sophomores this year could transfer out, although it's pretty late in the year to do so.  I assume the juniors would stay and finish their degrees at the university, but there were only 7 juniors on last year's roster.  So, it's possible they won't have enough to field a team next year.  Pretty sad for a team that finished in second place in the SLIAC with a 7-1-1 record in conference and a 10-6-3 record overall and lost in the conference tournament semifinals.

With Mississippi University for Women's future still a little murky given the recent move in the legislature to merge it with Mississippi State, the SLIAC could be down 2 teams in the next few years (from the 10 it had to start last season).