It's been almost a year since a Cleveland State students' vote showed they were interested in football, but not so thrilled about paying for it with student fees.

Those who want to see the Vikings on the gridiron will probably be waiting many more years before toe meets ball on an inaugural kickoff. While CSU completes its search for a permanent athletic director, money has become a bigger issue.

The school is expecting to lose an estimated $15.6 million in state aid in the upcoming Ohio budget. Funding for the sports it fields now is enough of an issue, let alone floating a new sport that would require $11.5 million to $13.1 million in start-up fees.

The reasons for proposing a team aren’t going away, though. CSU is building new dorms to replace the now-vacant Viking Hall, and those rooms need occupants. Also, degree and course completion have become factors in how much state funding schools receive. CSU has so many part-time and commuter students that its graduation rate is affected by those who can’t finish in six years or give up. So it needs as many full-time students as it can get. About 100 full-time-student football players would be a start.

A football initiative would be similar to those at Notre Dame College and Lake Erie College, except that CSU isn’t planning to offer scholarship money to recruits. Once the start-up costs are covered, the school hopes the team would be sustained through student fees and revenue generated by the team.

Ideally, football would boost enrollment, give those new students who move into the dorms something to do on weekends in the fall, attract more people to the neighborhood being planned for north of Chester Avenue and boost the graduation rate while paying for itself.

Anyone have $13.1 million?

-       - Howard Primer

If Cleveland State makes it to the NCAA tournament, perhaps the Vikings can petition to not have their games shown on national television.

It's been a rough year in front of the ESPN cameras for CSU, most recently a 74-63 loss Sunday at Old Dominion. The Vikings rely on senior guard Norris Cole and pressure defense to force turnovers because they're thin on the front line and the bench. They had one half of the equation working on Sunday.

Cole, the leading candidate for Horizon League player of the year, scored 35 points and kept CSU in the game in the first half. The rest of the team only had 28 points, and Old Dominion held a 51-22 rebounding advantage.

The Vikings now face their most important weekend of the season. They could win the HL regular season title and clinch a bye to the semifinals in the league tournament, which the No. 1 seed hosts (plus the championship game at the highest remaining seed). They could also finish out of the top two seeds and have to win two games just to get to the semis.

As of Sunday, CSU is 12-4 in the HL, followed by Valparaiso (11-4) and Butler (12-5). Here are their remaining schedules:

- CSU: vs. Milwaukee on Thursday, vs. Green Bay on Saturday
- Valpo: at Green Bay on Monday, vs. Loyola on Thursday, vs. UIC on Saturday
- Butler: vs. Loyola on Saturday

The best case for the Vikings is to keep winning and have Valpo lose at least once. If CSU and Valpo finish tied and Butler finishes third, Valpo would win the tiebreaker. Butler also has the tiebreaker edge on CSU because the Bulldogs won both matchups against the Vikings this season.

Getting every advantage it can in the league tournament is important for CSU because its profile for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament isn't strong. The bracket projection sites have CSU in the field at the moment because they're in first place in the league and therefore the presumed tournament champion. As an at-large, it would be tough to pick the Vikings over Butler - if the HL received a second bid. It's looking more and more as if CSU's loss to Butler at home on Feb. 5 was the hinge to their season.

If CSU doesn't win the league tournament, it will make for a nervous Selection Sunday in the Wolstein Center. Losing a résumé-bolstering game at Old Dominion will make for even sweatier palms.

- Howard Primer