WIAC Football Teams Will See Double Beginning In 2011
MADISON, Wis.--The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) announced today the implementation of a scheduling framework in the sport of football that includes playing a second game against the same WIAC opponent effective with the 2011 season. One of the two games will be designated as a non-conference contest and this schedule is one of a number of initiatives adopted previously as part of the conference’s efforts to reduce operating costs.
“The goal of playing an additional game vs. a WIAC opponent is to reduce the number of long-distance trips, particularly those involving air travel, that many of our football teams have been forced to take in the past to fill-out non-conference schedules”, commented WIAC Commissioner Gary Karner.
“While no one is particularly enthused about playing a WIAC opponent a second time, the current economic climate combined with limited opportunities we have for scheduling other Division III institutions located in the upper Midwest in the sport of football, leaves us with few viable alternatives”, added Karner.
Karner also noted that one advantage to simply adding an extra game vs. a conference opponent is in the event the overall economy and our operational budgets improve and/or other more favorable scheduling opportunities present themselves, the additional game can be eliminated with little substantive impact on the remainder of the schedules.
•A few of the other notable cost-reduction initiatives implemented recently by the WIAC include:
•Establishing later start times for contests so as to minimize the number of overnight stays for visiting teams.
•Limiting postseason tournament brackets in all team sports to a maximum of six teams.
•Restricting teams to taking no more than one trip during the regular-season outside of an established regional perimeter.
•Suspending the annual conference summer workshop and football and basketball media days for 2009.
•Freezing officiating fees at 2008-09 levels.
It should be noted these cuts are in addition to those budget-reduction measures already imposed by the state or UW System such as the employee salary freeze and mandated furloughs. It is estimated that the conference imposed cuts will save an additional $250,000 in direct budget expenditures and a total of nearly $450,000 across the conference when factoring in expenditures paid from other sources (e.g., Foundations, booster clubs, fund-raising) as well as those activities funded directly by student-athletes.
The WIAC is comprised of nine prominent NCAA Division III Wisconsin universities, including UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, UW-Superior and UW-Whitewater.
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