QUEEN CREEK, AZ – It was just three years ago that the Pacific West Conference shrunk to four NCAA Division II teams all based on the Hawaiian Islands.
Gone were the mainland schools that had once forged the largest geographic conference in the nation, stretching from Hawai‘i to Alaska, from New Mexico to Montana, and up and down the Pacific Northwest.
But on Thursday NCAA cartographers officially drew the PacWest back on the Division II map by granting the league automatic qualifiers that will guarantee post-season berths for most of its team sports.
“This is a landmark decision for the PacWest,” Bob Hogue, who recently completed his first year as commissioner, said. “We have worked diligently to get to this day for the past several years. It is the culmination of the tremendous work by so many people. We are thrilled.”
A statement by the NCAA released from its offices in Indianapolis indicated that the Division II Presidents Council approved a request from the Pacific West Conference to waive the two-year waiting period that applies to newly active leagues for an automatic qualification (AQ) to NCAA Championships.
With this decision, the PacWest is immediately eligible for automatic qualifiers during the upcoming 2008-09 campaign. These sports include men’s and women’s basketball, men’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, and women’s tennis.
“The Presidents Council sees this as a gesture to help Division II membership in the West, and an action that aligns with the Division II strategic-positioning platform that values Division II as a membership destination,” Metropolitan State’s Stephen Jordan, who serves as the council chair, stated. “My colleagues and I believe that the health of the conferences in the West Region are critical to Division II’s ability to retain established members and attract new institutions that fit the Division II identity.”
When the PacWest slipped to just four teams, it fell below the six-school minimum required by the NCAA to be considered an active Division II conference.
Brigham Young University Hawaii, Chaminade University of Honolulu, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Pacific University banded together for a year until the 2006-07 athletic season when Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, AZ), Dixie State College of Utah (St. George, UT) and Notre Dame de Namur University (Belmont, CA) boosted the PacWest from four to seven teams.
Grand Canyon immediately gave the league a fifth Division II program, while NDNU and Dixie State worked through the transition and were granted full Division II membership in late July.
When that happened, the PacWest jumped to seven teams and applied to have its automatic qualifier status reinstated.
Because rules dictate that new conferences must have six active member schools compete together for two years before earning the AQs, the PacWest could have been forced to wait two more years.
How important are automatic qualifiers?
In 2007-08, the Hawai‘i Hilo women’s volleyball team went 14-0 in the PacWest and 23-5 overall, yet the Vulcans were not selected for the NCAA Division II Tournament. The HPU softball team boasted a 43-5-1 overall mark and a 23-1 record in the league yet were left out of the eight-team West Regional.
While bylaws may change in the future, the PacWest regular-season champion in most sports will receive the automatic qualifier because the league does not currently conduct post-season tournaments.
The two notable exceptions are women’s tennis and men’s golf where a season-ending team championship is held. Unlike the other team sports, women’s tennis and men’s golf do not have mandated league schedules.
The PacWest is again the largest geographic conference in Division II stretching from Hawai‘i through the Bay Area of California over to Utah and southeast toward Phoenix.
Schools are located in three major metropolitan regions covering four time zones.
The PacWest recently added the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA, and Dominican University of California to increase its league roster to nine.