GNAC commissioner keeps optimistic outlook

YAKIMA – Richard Hannan would like to proclaim GNAC football healthy and growing, with a sky’s-the-limit future.

In lieu of that, and in light of Western Washington’s surprising decision to drop the sport earlier this month, the commissioner on Tuesday remained optimistic that his conference stands on solid gridiron ground for the present and realistically hopes to expand in the future.

“I need to preface my remarks by saying that I can’t speak for other schools,” Hannan said. “But our four football ADs have reaffirmed that football is an integral part of their sports programs and will remain so.

“What we’re currently trying to do is get our 2009 schedules adjusted, and we’re almost there for next year.

“We only have a couple of loose ends to tie up.”

Hannan last week attended the NCAA convention in Washington D.C., as had Central Washington athletic director Jack Bishop. He said football was discussed at length, and came away with thoughts that the GNAC could add Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, possibly for 2010.

Beyond their addition, Hannan said several other West Coast schools – institutions he preferred to not name – are considering moving up from lower classifications to Division II, and might also be interested in one day joining the conference.

“Of course, all of this is may be partially me looking through my rose-colored glasses,” he said.

The GNAC, which went without football in 2006 and 2007 as Central and Western joined the now-defunct North Central Conference, resumed gridiron competition last fall with five teams. Each school played eight conference games, with home-and-home contests against all GNAC opponents.

But Western’s exit left only CWU, Western Oregon, Humboldt State and Dixie State of St. George, Utah, for next year, and each of those programs has been forced to fill two schedule dates.

For CWU, it not only means finding two more opponents, it means replacing two games with an archrival, including one that for the past six years had been played at Seattle’s Qwest Field.

Bishop, who reiterated Central’s commitment to football in a university release, said last week from Washington that “99 percent” of DII institutions had completed their 2009 schedules.

“There are some other schools that had scheduled Western that are looking for games, just like us,” he said.

Hannan said Simon Fraser and UBC had representatives at the convention, but both schools still needed administrative approval to join the NCAA. The deadline for membership application this year is June 1.

“They’re still in what you would call a formal exploration or review process on their campuses,” he said.

The Canadian schools would give the GNAC six football programs, the minimum number for a conference to get an automatic playoff berth for its champion.

But Hannan said the two would be considered affiliate members, thereby mandating that the GNAC get a waiver for automatic playoff participation.

Central went unbeaten in the five-team conference last season, but it reached the playoffs only because it was ranked among the top six in its final regional poll.

“Certainly, if the Canadian schools joined that could encourage a couple of other schools to come along,” Hannan said. “If we could get to seven or eight, then I’d feel like I had all the answers.

“The four we have right now are solid, though, and we’re working through this situation, taking the economy into account, as best we can. What we really need now is expansion.”