In the 2023 season, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference began playing only conference football games instead of having out of conference games on the schedule. However, the old model is making a return. 

“We’ve gone back and forth with this for a while,” Commissioner of the PAC Joe Onderko said. “Prior to last year when we had 11 teams, we had always done an unbalanced schedule. So you played eight conference and two non-conference games, and that meant you didn’t play everybody in your schedule.” 

Onderko continued to say that the Athletic Directors in the PAC felt the conference had a “truer champion” if they played everybody. However, that is not the only reason. 

“The other thing is, and this is really important, for a long time it was really impossible to get an at-large berth in the DIII football playoffs,” Ondersko said. “So our feeling was why are we worried about getting a second team? It is almost impossible, let’s just worry about getting our champion right.” 

The DIII football playoff this past year however was expanded from 32 teams to 40. This means starting this fall, eight other “at large teams” get in. 

“From our standpoint, that changes the equation a little bit,” Onderko said. “Because now you have a really good chance of getting our second place team if they are 9-1 as a atlarge selection.” 

Due to that change, Onderko said in 2025 the “unbalanced schedule” will make its return as teams will play their eight conference games along with two non-conference ones. 

Waynesburg University Athletic Director Tim Fusina was among the athletic directors who was in favor of having a conference-only schedule. 

“The all PAC football schedule is a byproduct of having 11 football schools in our league when Allegheny joined the PAC.”

Fusina also serves as the men’s basketball head coach for Waynesburg, and with that, the team has five non-conference games put into their 25-game schedule. 

“Non-conference games are a huge help,” Fusina said. “If you have a veteran team, you may schedule a tough non-conference schedule so you can improve your strength of schedule and also have a barometer of where your team stands compared to other better programs.” 

With the PAC implementing a two-division system into both mens and womens basketball next season, this will bring new changes to the basketball schedules as well. 

As the system had changed for when Allegheny joined the PAC in 2022, they are doing the same for Hiram College as they are set to join next year. However this time, Carnegie Mellon University is leaving the PAC. 

“The football teams in the PAC have already scheduled their two non-conference games before CMU decided to leave,” Fusina said. “We, as ADs, felt that honoring those non-PAC games are important, so the schedule will have two non-conference games in 2025 and 2026.” 

Fusina also believes that with the non-conference games, this allows the better PAC football teams a chance to play in the DIII playoffs. 

“Having two non-PAC games will give the top of our league the chance to schedule tougher non-PAC opponents and give the PAC a chance at getting multiple bids in the NCAA tournament, which raises the profile for the conference,” Fusina said. 

The PAC and the athletic directors will reconvene after the 2025-2026 season to see how the scheduling format will go from there.