Cincinnati Christian (NAIA - OH) played their first season of NAIA football back in 2016 as an upstart program.
The program went winless in their first three years, going 0-11 for three straight seasons heading into the 2019-20 campaign. This year the team seems to have turned a corner, winning their season opener against Warner (NAIA - FL) before dropping a few close games in the weeks that followed. Last weekend they earned their second win of the season (and also the second in program history) 24-16 against Union (NAIA - KY).
Unfortunately, just as the football program started to build some good momentum, the school announced that they will be shutting their doors in just a few months before the start of the 2020 spring semester. The bad news was shared with students via a letter on the university website saying that the school would be "suspending accredited courses" after the fall semester concludes.
Every time a school decides to shut their doors like this, players and coaches are among the ones hurt the most. Coaches are left looking for new jobs, and will likely have to uproot their families for the next opportunity.
Below is a list of the coaches currently listed on the CCU Football website.
Coach Zeiders and his staff have done a remarkable job in his second season leading the program, taking over young program that had lost 22 straight and notching the program's first ever win to open the 2019 season, and capturing their second win this past weekend. It has to incredibly tough to be on top of the mountain top after that win Saturday, only to learn a few days later that the school has decided close, and all the hours of hard work being poured into the program will soon be only a memory.
CCU is the second NAIA program this year that has announced that the school would be shutting down, joining Lindenwood-Belleville who made the announcement back in May that they'd be ceasing operations at the conclusion of the spring 2020 semester.
Below is the letter that Cincinnati Christian shared with students..
