According to the NCAA News, the Southern Conference announced it will put in place cost-containment measures for the 2009-10 academic year. The measures include reducing conference baseball series to two days from three and reducing the number of qualifying teams for select conference tournaments and other cuts. The top four teams in men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, softball, and men’s and women’s tennis will participate in conference tournaments, down from nine in softball, 11 in women’s tennis and eight in the remaining sports. The conference also eliminated media days for football and basketball and will not print media guides. Staff travel to regular-season events, including conventions and professional development seminars, will be reduced. In-person meetings will also be replaced with teleconferences. The conference will re-evaluate the strategies in January 2010.
A project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation