Economic problems have not spared Division III member institutions. Financial struggles have claimed Colorado College and Blackburn football, are close to claiming UW-La Crosse baseball and are threatening Greensboro College entirely.

Note: Principia also discontinued football but has publicly stated finances were not the reason.

Against that backdrop, some conferences are taking measures to cut costs. The WIAC announced a Cost Reduction Plan especially targeted at cutting travel costs. Elements of the Plan include:

• Later start times to minimize hotel stays
• Conference playoffs limited to six teams
• Restricting teams to no more than one trip during the regular-season outside of an established regional perimeter.
• Exploring the feasibility of scheduling one additional WIAC football team as a nonconference game beginning with the 2011 season.

The Conference’s release cites $250,000 in direct budget savings associated with these moves, but it’s hard to spot exactly how it impacts football or basketball in 2009-2010. The men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were already at six teams last year. Conference Commissioner Gary Karner clarified that the regional perimeter is not defined by the administrative regions (west for football and men’s basketball; central for women’s basketball) so games against the CCIW, MIAC and MWC aren’t affected. The regional perimeter is also not defined by the very broad geographic region that stretches from Texas to California anyway. Of course, the WIAC is much more than three sports, so these actions may very well have a stronger impact elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this is a good move that seeks a conference-wide solution instead of leaving individual institutions to fend for themselves with whatever level of resources they have. Since all these public institutions have the same resource base (Wisconsin tax payers), equity is particularly important.

Members of the Centennial Conference are also working together to reduce costs. Executive Director Steve Ulrich reports that the Conference will limit the size of travel squads to the NCAA championship max plus 20 percent and change starting times to avoid overnight trips. Other measures will impact Conference championships in indoor track and field and golf. Two conference members also had a unique swim meet in which both teams were the home teams.