LSC Scoop Afternoon Update 6-27

LSC Presidents take action at spring meeting - LSC Office
The Lone Star Conference Council of Presidents held its annual summer meeting June 20 in Allen, Texas, where several actions were taken by the league’s governing group.

President Ann Stuart of Texas Woman’s University served as chair for the meeting, wrapping up a year-long term in which she provided oversight to several important developments within the conference.

Among the Council’s most notable actions was a charge for Commissioner Stan Wagnon to identify and recruit football-playing members as the league moves forward. Wagnon’s objective will be to identify potential new members and determine solutions that align with the LSC’s vision to become the premier NCAA Division II conference.

“This is an important time to study membership options and capitalize on opportunities for enhancement,” said Commissioner Stan Wagnon, whose league has 11 total members and nine that play football. “We would find great value in an additional football-playing member, especially as non-conference scheduling opportunities in that sport appear to be on the decline.”

Further, the group agreed to a set of organizational values that will be used to define shared interests of conference members, help guide the league’s future decisions and actions, and provide a template for conference branding efforts. Those values are Integrity, Tradition, Community, Academic Excellence, Respect and Commitment.

“Our Presidents made it a priority to determine a shared code of values, and it’s my intention to keep these values in the forefront as we move forward, both for internal purposes in making key decisions and externally as we tell our story,” Wagnon said.

The Presidents approved a change in the determination of the conference champion in men’s and women’s basketball. The regular season winner will be crowned LSC champion and receive the league’s custom wooden trophy, with the tournament winner designated LSC Tournament Champion and given a cup award. This move, intended to reward performance over 18 games for men and 20 for women, was made possible due to a new scheduling format that allows teams to play all others both home and away. The modification also was discussed for baseball, softball, volleyball, tennis and women’s soccer before being tabled to study the impact in those sports and get feedback from those coaches.

The Presidents also endorsed the sites for next year’s conference championships along with new tournament formats in softball and golf. In 2012, softball will have an eight-team single-elimination championship tournament, with member schools bidding to serve as host. A request for proposals was distributed to the membership last week, and a site will be selected by summer’s end.

Click here for the 2011-12 Championships and Events

The 2012 golf championships will be conducted simultaneously on the Whitworth Course at Trophy Club Country Club, with both genders playing a practice round on Sunday, the men playing 36 competitive holes and the women 18 on Monday, before concluding with 18 for both on Tuesday.

Additionally, next year’s baseball tournament will move to a new site as Angelo State University was selected to host. ASU also will host the cross country championships, while the track & field championships meet will be conducted at Texas A&M University-Commerce.

In its approval of future schedules, the group supported format changes in baseball and softball. The 2012 and 2013 schedules for baseball were set with a four-game series against all teams, to include nine-inning games on Friday and Sunday and a doubleheader of two 7-inning contests on Saturday. Next year’s softball schedule includes a three-game weekend series against all teams, except that each team will play its closest opponent in three games over a series of two Tuesdays.

Finally, the group approved for the upcoming 2011-12 academic year the Executive Committee of officers, which will include Steve Tallant from Texas A&M University-Kingsville as chair, Steve Gamble of Eastern New Mexico University as vice-chair, Dan Jones from Texas A&M University-Commerce as second vice-chair and University of the Incarnate Word’s Louis Agnese as third vice-chair.

The LSC Council of Presidents, which meets twice annually, serves as the governing board of the Conference and has final decision-making authority regarding any legislation, policy or activity pertaining to the Conference.