Bob Hogue estimates he’s traveled more than 100,000 miles in his first year as commissioner of the Pacific West Conference.

It’s a job requirement for a man trying to help a Division II league re-establish its identity after membership dipped below the required six schools earlier this decade.

Today, the conference has eight members – Brigham Young-Hawaii, Chaminade, Dixie State, Grand Canyon, Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific, Notre Dame de Namur and the San Francisco Academy of Art, which will return the Pac West to active status in fall 2009. The league sponsors men’s and women’s basketball, cross country and soccer; baseball and men’s golf; and softball, women’s tennis and volleyball.

“In our minds, we are the most beautiful destination conference in the entire NCAA,” said Houge, who is a 1975 graduate of Southern California, where he was an invited walk-on for the baseball team. “We have schools in Hawaii, the San Francisco Bay area, the Grand Canyon state of Arizona and the red rock country of southwestern Utah. It is absolutely gorgeous.”

Hogue’s journey to running the Pac West is as long as the league is geographically spacious. Hogue is a former certified public accountant, television anchor and play-by-play announcer. He’s also been a state senator in Hawaii (2000-06), a radio sports talk-show host and a sports columnist. He also made a bid to become a U.S. Congressman in 2006.

He’s equally pleased to add conference commissioner to his resume.

“I’m in my dream job,” Hogue said.

Obviously, though, the league’s geography prompts discussion of travel costs and budgets at the conference meetings.

“I want others in the NCAA to have an understanding of some of these challenges,” Hogue said. “We’re not a bus ride away. Everybody has to get on a plane. It’s a great experience, but it is a challenge that we’ve got to deal with on a real basis every day, every week and every month.”

Hogue is ready to hurdle these obstacles, frequent flier miles notwithstanding.