PAC football opts for 8-game conference schedule
By John Sacco
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
The NCAA Division III football season ended a little more than a week ago. But the Presidents Athletic Conference has set forth its plan for the 2025 football season.
Initially, the PAC was set to operate a 12-team, two-division system with a championship game between the division winners.
Hiram College’s return to the PAC for 2025 gave the football conference an even number of teams.
However, Carnegie Mellon- a PAC football-only member – has moved on to the Centennial Conference, leaving the PAC with an uneven number, wiping out the conference’s plans.
“We will have eight conference games for all teams and two nonconference games for all teams in 2025,” said Joe Onderko, PAC commissioner. “Everybody has secured two non-conference games and we did not want anyone to have to break contracts.
“What’s going to happen is we’ll have 11 teams in the league. There will be a two-team cycling off the schedule (of all teams) in each year. Those are going to be different teams in 2025 and in 2026. That was the request of our athletic administrator’s council (which consists of athletic directors). I think beyond that, it’s still a topic for discussion. Obviously, we’re in a very fluid time.”
The PAC sent three teams to the NCAA playoffs, which were expanded from 32 to 40 teams this season. Those teams, Grove City, CMU and Washington & Jefferson, tied for the conference championship. Westminster played in a bowl game.
W&J and Grove City lost in the round of 32 while CMU split two games, losing in the round of 16.
The two local schools – W&J and Waynesburg University – have two-year, home-and-home, nonconference games contracted.
The Presidents will play Utica and Hampden-Sydney while the Yellow Jackets will play Dickinson and John Carroll over the next two seasons.
Some other matchups include Grove City playing Cortland State and Mount Union; Westminster will play Marietta and Franklin & Marshall and Case Western Reserve will meet Wabash and Centre.
A spokesman said Case Western will definitely not play CMU next season.
Onderko said the uncertainty of several matters makes it difficult to make long-term plans.
“To know the trickle down of things like the transfer portal and NIL and all the craziness going on in Division I, I think we’re just waiting to see how things play out before making decisions beyond that. Also, we acknowledge that our membership could always be fluid as well.
“It’s going to be challenging for us in the short term to come out and say here’s a four-year schedule. I think we felt that with the changes going on with the D-III playoffs — this was a move that the coaches recommended — so we went ahead and went with it for the two years. Beyond that, we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.”