WashU has competed in the CCIW for the last five years. (Sam Powers | Student Life)

The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) has revoked the Washington University football team’s associate membership, a CCIW spokesman confirmed to Student Life Friday, Sep. 6. WashU will remain an associate member of the conference until the 2025 season concludes. The news was first reported by d3sports.com. 

“The CCIW Council of Presidents have been closely watching the conference membership shifts throughout D-III. 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,” CCIW Executive Director Maureen Harty shared in a written statement. “We made the decision to give WashU 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.”

WashU Athletic Director Anthony Azama declined to comment.

Per the CCIW’s constitution, five of the conference’s nine core members can vote to oust an associate member from the conference. It is unclear which CCIW core members voted to remove WashU. 

While most WashU teams compete in the University Athletic Association (UAA), the UAA stopped sponsoring football in 2013 after many football members sought other football conference affiliations. WashU then joined the CCIW, considered to be one of the premier conferences in D-III football. 

In five CCIW seasons to date, the Bears have gone 33-12 in conference play. Bears football has not won a CCIW title, but has finished third or fourth in the conference every season of their membership. In addition, the Bears have twice qualified for the Culver’s Isthmus Bowl, the bowl game for the best team in the conference that doesn’t qualify for the NCAA Division III playoffs. 

Head football coach Aaron Keen emphasized that his focus is on the season ahead.

“There’s a lot of things that are probably at play, and there are certain things that we can’t control that our administration is going to take care of,” Keen said. “I don’t have a comment on what’s next, but the main thing that I can do is worry about our weekly opponents.” 

It is unclear which conference the Bears will join next. Though the UAA doesn’t currently sponsor football, five of its teams have football programs. However, five schools is not enough for the UAA to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. On Mon., Sep. 9, UAA core member Carnegie Mellon University announced that their football program will join the Centennial Conference beginning in the 2025 season, making it less likely that the UAA will sponsor football again. 

WashU football once competed in the Southern Athletic Association (SAA), but adding WashU now would expand the SAA to an uneven nine member teams. Other conferences with teams in the region include the American Rivers Conference, based in Iowa, the American Southwest Conference in Texas, and the Heartland Conference in Indiana and Ohio.

Bears football opened their season with a 44-20 win over Rhodes College on Saturday, Sep. 7.

This article was originally published on Friday, Sep. 6 and was last updated at 12:51 PM on Monday, Sep. 9.

Riley Herron contributed reporting to this article.