WashU is getting a stiff-arm from the rest of the CCIW after the 2025 season. 2022 file photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com

By Patrick Coleman and Dave McHugh,
D3sports.com

Washington University in St. Louis, an associate member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin for football, is being shown the door by the conference membership and will be removed from the conference after the 2025 fall season.

Sources confirmed this news to D3sports.com on the condition that they not be identified. It was confirmed by the conference office on Friday afternoon.

The move will reduce the conference's football membership from 10 teams, a desirable number for scheduling purposes, to nine, which means each team will have either a non-conference game or a bye week on one random week during the season.

“The CCIW Council of Presidents have been closely watching the conference membership shifts throughout D-III,” CCIW Executive Directory Maureen Harty told D3sports.com. “It is in the best interest of our core members to be in a position to act quickly if the opportunity presents itself to add a core member that sponsors football. We made the decision to give Wash U notice now, so they can begin to pursue other options. WashU and Coach (Aaron) Keen have been a great partner and we look forward to their next two seasons in the CCIW.”

According to the CCIW's constitution, an associate member's status can be revoked by a simple majority vote of the Council of Presidents, meaning just five of nine schools would have been able to oust WashU from the league.

In their time in the CCIW, the Bears added to the depth of what was already considered a quality league. WashU has always finished in the top half of the conference, but have never won the conference's automatic bid. They have twice played in the CCIW's postseason bowl game, the Isthmus Bowl. WashU has gone 33-12 in conference play over five seasons.

The Bears have finished third, or tied for third, every year it has been a CCIW member except for last season, in which they finished fourth.

WashU is a full member of the University Athletic Association, which has just five schools which sponsor football. The UAA has not sponsored football since 2013, and even under the new regulations, five schools is not enough to qualify for an automatic bid in Division III. The Bears could potentially return to a previous conference, the Southern Athletic Association. The SAA will have eight football members starting in 2025, however, and adding a ninth member that is well outside the conference's footprint may not be desirable.

If the American Southwest Conference is still in existence after 2025, the conference might well extend WashU an invite for football. Even adding one football team, however, would not give the ASC enough teams to qualify for an automatic bid.

WashU opens its 2024 season on Saturday evening at Rhodes.