PNCLL Fall Meeting

[TheBearcatHimself]

I know there are discussions about how the West would be loaded right now, but you dont build a league on what is fair, you do it on what is logically the best. This is the most efficient way right now, and eventually I think the East can be just as competitive.

Hit the nail on the head, talent ebbs and flows. Also, you could almost argue that this is exponentially more fair because two teams from the East are guaranteed playoff spots and will get invaluable playoff experience. And who's to say they couldn't get three or four??

[nlyon02]

Will WSU's petition be at the beginning of the meeting or toward the end. With that stated, if at beginning and we are voted in by you guys, do we get to vote on other league ideas or are we out for a year.

Also I really do like the idea of east and west if all of this is done. Seems like it would save a little bit of money. The problem that people on the west might have is that they are stacked compared to the east right now and they want a fair shot at the championship. So when playoffs come around have the best west play runner up east and vice versa. Allow them to have a shot at the championship too if the west is really that much better.

[Timbalaned]

It doesn't matter how you set up the playoffs, the best team will win it. Whether the best game of the tournament turns out to be a semi final game because the two best teams play then and the final is a cake walk, we will still have the best team win it all.

[Ryan Hanavan]

Must play each team in your division and maybe two games from the other division?

West (I-5)
SFU
UW
OSU
UO
*WWU

East
Gonzaga
Idaho
Boise State
Montana
*WSU

*Depending on joining the league and petitioning up.

Playoffs with Top Two from each and next two best conference records as wildcards.

Lets hear some opions/ideas

We might also consider playing everyone in our region twice (home/away) or playing have of the other region on the road and the other half at home every year so that Idaho is still forced to play SFU or Oregon (as an example) in order to earn a playoff spot. Or if we do play the two (or three depending on who comes in or goes out) maybe they don't count for the playoff bid? I think that has to be an all regional or all PNCLL system for earning a playoff spot.

The east vs. west all-star game is also a great idea. If we put 2 - 20 or 25 man rosters together with 4 teams from each region (again just a number from a hat) maybe we give the top team the most all star spots and weight them by rank. I think to make it work you would probably want to give every team a chance to send players (in order to gain interest) but weight it so that the better record gets a few more spots and so on down the line. Then you could charge every team the same rate so that everyone splits the costs equally and no one complains because everyone is in. So with a 4 team region it might break down like this (1st - 7 players, 2nd - 6 players, 3rd - 5 players, 4th - 3 players = 21 man roster), or something along those lines.

Just a few of my thoughts and some that I stole from my assistant coach.

[Ryan Hanavan]

that "Have" in the first paragraph of my response was meant to be half. I need spell check with AI to pick up my tendencies for poor grammar.

[woulax23]

Will WSU's petition be at the beginning of the meeting or toward the end. With that stated, if at beginning and we are voted in by you guys, do we get to vote on other league ideas or are we out for a year.

I am pretty sure that the answer is no. If I understand the league rules, then at this point WSU is not being looked at as an old member with league ties being reinstated but as a completely new team being added. This would make them fall under probationary status for the first year, meaning they have no vote in any league business. Pending the team attending all of their scheduled games in '08 they would lose their probationary status and would be a team able to have full say in league business for '09 and beyond. I also think that the probationary status prevents WSU from competing in the play-offs during their first season, but I am not sure about that........ I am sure, however, that Dan, Jason, or someone who knows better than me will correct this post

[Dan Wishengrad]

If WSU is re-admitted, it will be as a "new" probationary team, and therefore the Cougars will not have a vote on league matters until that probation is lifted. But if a new team fulfills all their financial, oraganizational and competitive responsibilities during their first regular season of play, the probationary status will be lifted and that team DOES become eligible for post-season play the first season back.

[Mark Brown]

Anyone know of WWU's plans to stay D-2 or move to D-1???? This info would help greatly.
Are ref bills going to be voted on the same as last year; home team pays for all vs. equal split?
Any word on other teams wanting to join?
Jason and Kyle are mysteriously missing from this thread (I know Bubba doesn't touch this place). Please give us any insight that you may have.
Thanks,

[Hi-Line Lax]

It is my understanding that WWU will not be petitioning to move to Div 1.

As far as scheduling goes then for Div 1, that makes 9 teams with the Griz and Cougars being admitted... IMO we should wait on a geographic split and just have everybody play everybody else for a 8 game conference schedule.

[Dan Wishengrad]

It is my understanding that WWU will not be petitioning to move to Div 1.

As far as scheduling goes then for Div 1, that makes 9 teams with the Griz and Cougars being admitted... IMO we should wait on a geographic split and just have everybody play everybody else for a 8 game conference schedule.

I concur! Eight conference games is not too much, although figuring out home weekends in the eastern half will be very, very tricky. Idaho & WSU are only 8 miles apart, so doubleheader (Sat-Sun) weekends at those two campuses are great for two visiting teams. But the Montana to Gonzaga to Boise State "triangle" would be pose some logistical nightmares, I fear. Lots of single game weekends in those three sites would not be ideal, nor would travelling between Missoula or Spokane and then Boise be something any visitor from west of the Cascades would look forward to.

Anyone have any suggestions for making this work?

[Shawn Carman]

Since people are talking about splits and distances to travel I did not know if this little picture would help out at all in getting some direction on the topic.



The 9 black dots are all the team in the league and potential teams -
Simon Fraser
University of Washington
Washington State University
Gonzaga
Oregon State
University of Oregon
Boise State
University of Idaho
University of Montana

[Ryan Hanavan]

I think 8 conference games is a better measure than what the split would create at this point. It might be easiest to take 8 of the 9 schools and create pairs with at least 8 of them. WSU/UI are obvious because of the 8 mile split between the two schools. UW/SFU, UO/OSU, GU/UM would be the others. Sorry to leave BSU out but this could be a start. If UI/WSU went to UO/OSU this year UW/SFU would come to the Palouse this year and GU/UM on the alternate year and vice versa. BSU would do the same thing but we would only be traveling there for one game but there is a lot of opportunity to pick up some other action down there. This might also allow Albertson to pick up a few A games?

I think no matter what we do we need to iron out a schedule this year that starts to balance year to year. I know this conversation comes up all the time and one of the first comments is that teams come and go and it creates problems. I think the best thing to do is forget about that and look forward as if these 9 teams are here to stay and treat the schedule the same way.

I'm not saying those pairings are the ones we should absolutely go by but I think they might be the best. I think a trip to Missoula before or after a trip to Spokane is fairly easy for the western schools and the SFU/UW and UO/OSU pairings are the most logical for eastern schools to rotate year to year.

[Ryan Hanavan]

I also realize that this might create some situations where one team has to travel to the same school(s) again this year or the other way around but maybe this fits in with the ref fee discussion.

I know it's not going to be perfect but it would at least set up a situation that allows every team to travel the same mileage every two years (if the pairs stay the same).

[nlyon02]

U of Montana and GU are about 3 hours apart. I do not think that gap is too much to drive in one weekend to play both teams. I know squat about the west side as I am from Spokane, but I believe UW and SF are almost just as far if not further away from each other. Then the only one out would be Boise state, but there is no way to logically pair them seeing that the closest team is about 5-6 hours away.

[Hi-Line Lax]

I think Ryan is pretty much right in line with what I'd been thinking as well. It is a tough situation for Boise, but we've offered to go down there this year and are trying to pick up an OOC while we're there in anticipation of a travel partner type split for everybody else... if there are just one or two more A teams that are willing to do the same (or even travel to Boise for 1 game) then they should get their fill of conference home games.