Discussions in the next several months could decide whether Division II is willing to go to great lengths for conferences that have to go great distances to play games.

At a summit last June, presidents and chancellors talked about the ramifications of the sparse population on travel and conference affiliation in the Western half of the Division II nation where just 66 of the division’s 281 active members reside. That prompted the Presidents Council to pursue mitigating such travel concerns – perhaps by adding a component to the division’s distribution formula that accounts for mileage incurred for in-region regular-season travel.

But there’s much to discuss before implementing such a plan. There certainly is evidence to support the concern. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has its nucleus in Colorado but contains institutions in New Mexico and Nebraska – and in Division II those are bus trips, not charter flights. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference has two schools in Alaska.

But what constitutes a travel challenge? Conferences in the East may not have the same geographic spread as their Western counterparts, but they certainly have their own challenges in traffic and congestion – what on a map looks like only 60 miles could in fact be a three- or four-hour bus trip.

“That becomes a challenge as we approach this as a division-wide discussion, because every conference has its unique geographic challenges and its unique geographic benefits,” said Division II Vice President Mike Racy.

In other words, some Division II members acknowledge that while distance may disadvantage the West, other factors such as tuition costs and housing may disadvantage the East – and nobody’s trying to ease those concerns.

“We all understand that as a division, it is in our best interests to ensure that every institution realizes it is valued as a Division II member – and it is our responsibility to review all possible concessions where appropriate,” said New Haven Athletics Director and Division II Management Council Chair Debbie Chin. “But at the same time, you don’t want to make those concessions at the expense of creating ill will within the rest of the membership.”

If the division indeed wants to pursue the matter further, it has a couple of potential funding options. One is a new “membership fund” the Division II Budget and Finance Committee approved in March that is designed to retain current members and woo potential newcomers. The other is the next scheduled increase in the enhancement fund (from $4.8 to $5.1 million) for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Racy said while all Division II members might get some piece of that $300,000 pie, a formula could be developed to allocate more to conferences in the West, as long as those dollars are earmarked to fund transportation to regular-season competition within that conference.

“It’s an interesting challenge for Division II,” Racy said. “At the end of the day, what the presidents are saying is that the membership numbers in the West continue to be lower than in other parts of the country, and if we’re truly going to be a division that spreads from coast to coast, that may require assistance for schools and conferences west of the Mississippi.”

Mapping the distance between RMAC schools

At a Division II presidential summit last June, Nebraska-Kearney President Doug Kristensen called the travel-strapped West the No. 1 challenge facing Division II. “Our Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents are an average of 600 miles away,” he said. “That’s like sending Gannon to play a conference game in Orlando or Pfeiffer to play one in Des Moines.” And in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western Washington’s road trips to the two schools in Alaska are akin to a coast-to-coast journey in the continental states.