ANAHEIM, CA – At a time when collegiate athletic conferences across the country face severe economic challenges, the commissioner’s office and the athletic directors of the Pacific West Conference are taking preemptive scheduling action to preserve the competitive balance and financial stability of the burgeoning league’s 11 NCAA Division II programs.
“The athletic directors of the PacWest have committed to the concept of pod scheduling – or regionalized scheduling,” Bob Hogue, commissioner of the conference explained. “This could reduce institutional travel costs by tens of thousands of dollars over the next couple of years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars as our conference continues to move toward targeted expansion.”
The concept of pod scheduling emerged from the athletic directors meetings in Anaheim, CA, during the first week of June.
The PacWest has exploded from a four-school league in 2005-06 to a nine-school conference ready for competition this year. The conference consists of Brigham Young University Hawaii, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Chaminade University of Honolulu and Hawai‘i Pacific University in Hawai‘i; Academy of Art University, Dominican University of California and Notre Dame de Namur University in the San Francisco Bay Area; Grand Canyon University in Phoenix; and Dixie State College of Utah in St. George.
With the challenge of cost containment splashed against the canvas of unprecedented growth in the largest geographic conference in Division II, the leaders of the PacWest are using strategic scheduling to prepare for the future.
The addition of Academy of Art and Dominican for 2009-10 has allowed the athletic leadership of the PacWest to seize an opportunity instead of waiting for economy forces to dictate change.
“The athletic directors specifically committed to pod scheduling in the four sports of women’s volleyball, softball, and men’s and women’s soccer,” Hogue stated. “Beginning in 2010-11, pod scheduling will significantly reduce the amount of plane trips that conference teams take during the season. Teams in these sports will play a minimum of once during the season in an imbalanced format rather than the traditional home-and-home scheduling scenario.”
The recent expansion has allowed the PacWest to identify three so-called pods – Hawai‘i with its four institutions, the San Francisco Bay Area with three schools, and the Southwest with two schools in Utah and Arizona.
The athletic directors also adjusted the upcoming 2009-10 schedules in all conference sports - men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s soccer - to allow for afternoon game times on so-called weekend getaway dates.
“That adjustment will allow traveling teams to reduce lodging costs immediately, and in today’s economy, every dollar counts,” Keith Baker, the director of athletics at Grand Canyon University said.
Additionally, the athletic directors identified measures that will trim costs in conference tournaments. For example, women’s tennis where the PacWest has had numerous national championship contenders in recent years, will cap out at eight participating teams for the conference event.
The conference championships are the only time during the year when PacWest teams meet head-to-head in the sports of men’s golf, women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s cross country.
“Every bit of cost containment involving scheduling helps all of our athletic programs and each of our schools,” Darren Vorderbruegge, the director of athletics and men’s golf coach at Hawai‘i Pacific explained. “But we need to be proactive in our planning so we don’t sacrifice the quality of the experience for the student athlete and the integrity of our programs.”
The PacWest athletic directors voted down a proposal to trim travel squad rosters, noting concern about health and safety, as well as the ability of traveling teams to be competitive on long road trips. However, individual schools are permitted to make institutional decisions on cost-containment travel restrictions as long as they adhere to competition rules set forth in PacWest bylaws and sport regulations.
“Reducing costs is paramount in these economic times, but we need to make sure our student athletes are never at risk,” Josh Doody, the athletic director at Notre Dame de Namur University who has a background in sports medicine, said. “The way we in the PacWest are approaching this challenge is through strategic planning and taking advantage of opportunities.”
Having three schools in the San Francisco area has helped create that opportunity.
“We have created a foundation for ongoing discussion,” Hogue said. “We have agreed to hold monthly athletic director conference calls that I believe will lead to even further discussion and recommendations.”
For example, the PacWest is driving around ideas for ground transportation partnerships that may reduce travel costs.
“Those discussions will continue throughout the summer,” Hogue added. “And I expect other recommendations to surface as we continue to monitor the current economy.”
The PacWest recently finished a remarkable year of firsts during the 2008-09 competition season, most notably gaining the automatic qualifiers for the NCAA II National Championships in most of its team sports.
Additionally, several program, including Dixie State softball, BYU-Hawaii and Hawai‘i Pacific women’s tennis, and Grand Canyon men’s golf, reached the national tournaments in their respective sports.
With the addition of Dominican and Academy of Art, the PacWest will have nine total members in 2009-10 competing in 11 official conference sports.