Since softball was established at Portland State in 1977, the team has always played in a different conference than the Big Sky, most recently playing in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. But, with the recent addition of two Big Sky schools that have softball, the conference now has enough teams to field a softball division.
Since softball was established at Portland State in 1977, the team has always played in a different conference than the Big Sky, most recently playing in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. But, with the recent addition of two Big Sky schools that have softball, the conference now has enough teams to field a softball division.
While the shift may not bring drastic changes to Viking softball, it finally gives the team a chance to earn records and games against familiar Portland State opponents, and also ensures the team will not have to play a division title prior to becoming the conference champion.
The Big Sky will expand in the 2013 season to welcome Southern Utah and North Dakota. Assistant Athletic Director Mike Lund said with that addition, the Big Sky now boasts seven schools that have a softball team. Per NCAA regulations, that makes the conference eligible for having a post-season NCAA berth and regular season.
Lund said that until recent years, the Big Sky has had just two schools with softball teams: Portland State and Sacramento State. This meant that the Vikings needed to find an alternative conference to play in.
Athletic Director Torre Chisholm said he doesn’t foresee any negative impacts for the team, but rather, that it will be a smooth transition into the conference where most of Portland State’s teams already compete.
“In a positive way, it makes softball one of the Big Sky sports, so their success translates to how we appear how the university does in all Big Sky sports,” Chisholm said. “Now, when they do well, it will count toward the president’s cup and all the other conference competitions.”
The President’s Cup is a Big Sky award given to the school with the best academic and on-the-field performances of all their competing teams. The award began in 2003, and Portland State has yet to claim the honor.
The softball schedule will primarily stay the same through the transition. In their Mountain Division of the PCSC, the Vikings already play Big Sky competitors Idaho State, Weber State and Northern Colorado, with Sacramento State being an overall conference competitor as they play in the Coastal Division of the PCSC.
That means that the Vikings will only say goodbye to current conference competitors Utah Valley and Seattle University and replace those teams with new Big Sky schools Southern Utah and North Dakota.
With a round-robin conference style set up, the Vikings will have one extra weekend of conference play next year. However, most of the other scheduling will remain the same.
“The pre-season tournaments will all be the same,” Chisholm said. “We will still play the toughest competition in the country and then for the conference play be ready and confident about being successful member of the Big Sky.”
After playing a handful of years in the Western Athletic Conference and then moving on to dominate the PCSC in recent seasons, the Viking softball team is ready to join their school in the Big Sky Conference. Before they can do that, they still have one final PCSC conference title they hope to take home; details on the championship game can be found on goviks.com.
