The Horizon League restored the eligibility of UIC student-athletes for all winter and spring league championships on Tuesday, walking back a previous decision to ban the school‘s athletic programs from postseason play in response to the school‘s move to join the Missouri Valley Conference.
After less than a week of outrage from the UIC side, the league‘s Board of Directors opted to grant Flames‘ athletes a special exemption to compete fully for the rest of the year.
“I credit our League’s Board of Directors for prioritizing UIC’s student-athletes despite UIC leaders’ continued actions regarding their move to another conference,” Horizon commissioner Julie Roe Lach said in a statement Tuesday. “The response from UIC leaders has been disappointing, disingenuous, and inconsistent with our League values. At the end of the day, our League’s Board of Directors realized that UIC leaders were not going to take any action to restore eligibility for their student-athletes – including by making a simple request to the Missouri Valley Conference to enter in 2023. So our Board chose to exercise their authority to grant the student-athletes an exception to the agreed-upon bylaw.”
