The Plain Dealer
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Edition: Final, Section: Sports, Page D8
Bill Lubinger

Cleveland State University President Michael Schwartz has chosen a committee to study whether it makes sense for the school to field a football team.

CSU Athletic Director Lee Reed will chair the 10-member panel, composed mainly of trustees and administrators of the school. Named were:

CSU trustees Rev. Marvin McMickle and Sally Florkiewicz; Sonali Wilson, CSU’s legal counsel and board secretary; Jack Boyle, the university’s vice president for business affairs and finance; Tim Long, CSU’s director of budget and financial analysis; Joel Lieske, a CSU political science professor who chairs the school’s athletics committee; Dennis Burnside, a Cleveland commercial real estate and economic development consultant; Mike Cleary, executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics; and Tim Cosgrove, a Squire, Sanders & Dempsey law partner, CSU grad and former chairman of the university’s board of trustees.

The group was given no specific target date to reveal its findings, but a report is expected sometime during spring semester.

“When I first meet with them and with Lee,” Schwartz said, “we’ll start talking about a time frame, because this thing cannot go on forever.”

Schwartz said he had no idea how many meetings it might take to resolve the issue.

Schwartz, who retires in July, last month floated the idea for a football team and a possible name change for the university.

“I have been asked about a football program since I arrived on the campus eight years ago,” he wrote in a letter to committee members last week. “The time has clearly come to have a definitive answer.”

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What Are Your Thoughts?
To send your comments regarding the prospect of CSU adding a football, please send an email to pr@csuohio.edu. Make sure to include "Football" in the subject line.