At a school like UWM, success is always going to be fleeting. Students don't care enough to invest their time or their money in the program. Donors aren't really all that into it. The larger community doesn't rally behind it like they do at UWGB. You just have to hope for a flash-in-the-pan coach like Pearl and hope he can stay and build something.

OTOH, it is hard simply to tell them to throw in the towel. I mean they did that about 20 years ago at Northeastern Illinois University which was in the MidCon at the time. But UWM doesn't want to be Northeastern Illinois University. They don't want to be Metropolitan State in Minnesota. (Did anyone even know those two universities existed before I mentioned them?) UWM wants to grow into a place with solid academics and respected research. It's pretty much unprecedented for any school to have the vision and the image to do that without athletics. Not saying that the two are necessarily linked, but if you don't have the $$$ for one, you don't have it for the other either.

But they are in a tough spot. No money. Little support. They are what they are.