GRAPEVINE, Texas – The annual Southland Conference Spring Meeting came to a close this week at the Gaylord Texan Resort with the league's Board of Directors approving final adjustments to accommodate the new 14-member alignment that debuts July 1, and confirming future schedule format changes requested by the basketball coaches and approved by the Advisory Council.
The Southland has expanded to 14 members, the largest configuration in its half-century of existence, with Abilene Christian University, the University of the Incarnate Word, the University of New Orleans and Houston Baptist University all join the league this summer. In addition to the overall membership, the Southland will have 11 football-playing members in 2014, also the largest gridiron alignment the league has had in its tradition-rich history. ACU and UIW are currently NCAA Division II programs making the four-year transition to Division I, and each program will have scheduling restrictions in 2013-14, as well as championship participation limits throughout the conversion period to full Division I membership. HBU and UNO are full NCAA Division I members and have no such restrictions.
After an active year and a half focused on adding membership, both of the administrative oversight bodies, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council, have been able to concentrate on putting the final touches on our still new 14-member plan," league commissioner Tom Burnett said. "This includes exhaustive work by athletic administrators and coaches to determine scheduling formats and championships qualification, but as they usually do, they have come together to find consensus in how to move forward and continue the league's record of competitive success and academic achievement."
For the coming year, schedules and championship event qualification are set. The 2013 football schedule is final with the current eight teams, as new programs Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist and UIW will debut in the 2014 schedule. In basketball, the Southland has developed a travel-swing partner schedule to give its Division I members 18 league games, and the two transitioning DI programs 14 games, twice against one another and once versus the DI teams. ACU and UIW cannot count as Division I scheduling opponents in 2013-14, but will be schedule counters in 2014-15 and beyond. Similar scheduling limits are in place for ACU and UIW in sports like baseball, volleyball and softball.
"Longer term, as Abilene Christian and UIW begin counting for scheduling purposes in 2014-15, the athletic directors continue to study competitive formats," Burnett added. "It's an important area of the Conference operation that deserves very careful review as we move forward."
The Board and the Advisory Council approved a revised regular-season format for basketball, effective in 2014-15. Instead of the Thursday-Saturday doubleheader format used in 2012-13 and also planned for the coming year, the Conference will end the weeknight twinbill, allowing the women's game to be played on Thursday night, followed by a men's-women's doubleheader on Saturday, and then a men's game (against the same institution that the women played Thursday) on Monday night. In the final week of the 2014-15 regular season, men's and women's teams will revert to the Thursday-Saturday doubleheader in an effort to not interfere with the tournament schedule the following week.
"Essentially, the road swings for the men's and women's teams are reversed with everyone getting a prime-time tipoff opportunity on the weeknights. Many members found the early starts for the women and late nights for the men in that format to be less desirable. But the Saturday doubleheader works very well for our members, so we have found some compromise." The administrative groups did not implement the new format for the upcoming season due to scheduling conflicts in some facilities.
The Board and Council also decided to table a comprehensive 2014-15 scheduling and championships format package from the volleyball coaches until early July, when all 14 members have full voting privileges and can appropriately address the subject matter.
Southland administrators also approved the following sites for 2014-15 championships: Women's Soccer and Men's and Women's Tennis at Lamar, and Volleyball and Softball at Northwestern State. The 2014 Men's and Women's Cross Country meet, to be held at Northwestern State, had previously been approved as part of a new rotational schedule. Likewise, the 2015 Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships were previously approved to be conducted at Southeastern Louisiana. The Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments will remain at Katy, Texas, at least through the 2014 event, and it's expected that the Conference's athletic directors will begin addressing the extended future of the tourney later this year. The 2015 Indoor Track and Field meet location will be determined at a later date.
The leadership of the Conference's presidential Board of Directors transitions for the next two academic years, as Southeastern Louisiana president Dr. John Crain assumes the chair's position from Stephen F. Austin president Dr. Baker Pattillo. Further, the Board selected Texas A&M-Corpus Christi president Dr. Flavius Killebrew as the chair-elect. Killebrew will become chair in 2015.
The Southland also hosted its annual Honors Dinner and Ceremony during the Spring Meeting. Former Texas A&M-Corpus Christi track and field student-athlete Shadrack Songok, a three-time NCAA distance champion, became the 42nd individual inducted into the league's Hall of Honor. The league's highest academic honors, the F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarships, were presented to three student-athletes, all graduating with 4.0 grade-point averages, Oral Roberts volleyball student-athlete Sheina Fernandes, Stephen F. Austin volleyball student-athlete Sabrina Burns, and Southeastern Louisiana student-athlete Brandon Bernard.
The Steve McCarty Citizenship Awards were presented to Northwestern State football student-athlete John Shaughnessy and McNeese State women's basketball student-athlete Caitlyn Baggett. And for the first time, the Southland recognized an institution's athletic department with an Academic Performance Award, as Oral Roberts was honored by the league's faculty athletic representatives.
Sam Houston State was presented the 2012-13 Women's All-Sports Award, as well as its fourth overall Commissioner's Cup that signifies competitive excellence across all 17 of the Southland's men's and women's sports, while Stephen F. Austin was awarded its third Men's All-Sports Award in the last four years.
