UTPA, Great West to make pitch to NCAA

EDINBURG — In its biggest meeting with the NCAA yet, the Great West Conference will make a pitch to college athletics’ biggest governing body next Wednesday in Indianapolis that the league should be granted an automatic bid to the season-ending tournament in all sports.

UTPA, which has not competed in a conference with an automatic qualifier since being booted from the Sun Belt in 1998 after being plagued by NCAA infractions, has been a member of the Great West since the summer of 2008 and will be a among the league’s contingent meeting with the NCAA at its annual meetings. NCAA president Mark Emmert will be in on the meeting, which sets this one apart from others the conference has had with the organization.

“We feel like we have a pretty good case,” Great West commissioner Ed Grom said. “We think the years that we have been together should mean something. We are just going to present our case to see where that goes.”

Grom said the conference’s contingent will consist of four Great West university presidents, including UTPA’s Robert S. Nelsen.

UTPA Director of Athletics Chris King said it’s rare for Emmert to be a part of this type of meeting with university presidents. King, though, cautioned it is just a meeting and added that an AQ in basketball might still be three years away and two years for baseball if granted.

“I think that it is good that (Emmert) is willing to be open-minded and listen,” King said. “I don’t know what it will accomplish.”

The GWC, which was once a football-only conference, was formed four years ago to house independent programs looking for a league in hopes of one day having an AQ. The core schools were Utah Valley, Houston Baptist, South Dakota, North Dakota, Chicago State, NJIT and UTPA. The Great West, however, has not remained intact.

South Dakota has left for The Summit League, North Dakota will compete in the Big Sky next season and Houston Baptist will jump ship to the Southland Conference beginning in the summer of 2013, hurting the Great West’s quest for an AQ.

For an AQ, a conference has to be labeled a multi-sport conference or have at least seven teams in men’s and women’s basketball and at least six in other sports. But the Great West is not allowed to pursue programs looking to move up from Division II because it is does not have multi-sport status.

Independent programs such as California State Bakersfield and Longwood University have been reluctant to join the Great West because it does not have an AQ. Bakersfield does compete in the Great West in outdoor track and field and women’s tennis.

“The new rule is if you want to go Division I, you have to be accepted by a Division I conference,” King said. “If we are not recognized as a Division I conference, we can’t go anywhere because we can’t add any institutions. We are stuck on five.”

If the meeting goes well, it will end UTPA’s 14-year desire to join an AQ conference. In 2005, UTPA was bypassed by the Southland Conference in favor of Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi because it would not commit to having a football program. Corpus is still without football.

UTPA said it has reached out to AQ leagues but has not been given an invitation. Utah Valley was in consideration for the WAC last summer.

Although the Great West is not geographically ideal, an automatic qualifier would go a long way in recruiting.

“We have lost recruits in the last three years who have essentially told us that compared to the school that they chose to go they liked UTPA better,” Broncs men’s basketball coach Ryan Marks said. “… Ultimately, they want a chance to play in the NCAA tournament.”

Grom said there is no timetable as to when the NCAA will make its decision and can’t gauge how the organization will rule. Nevertheless, he is optimistic.

“We feel like we have a compelling case,” Grom said. “We are really asking the NCAA to give us some legislative relief on this.”

Peter Rasmussen covers UTPA athletics for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via email at prasmussen@themonitor.com.