West/North/South/East Xtra: Presidents' Athletic Conference exec relishes expansion
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For football, the Presidents' Athletic Conference has added two teams.
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He took the job July 1, 2006, and is in his sixth year as the conference's chief administrator. The PAC comprises 10 full-time member schools that compete in NCAA Division III. Most of the PAC colleges -- Bethany, Chatham, Geneva, Grove City, Saint Vincent, Thiel, Washington & Jefferson, Waynesburg and Westminster -- are in the Western Pennsylvania area, with Thomas More located in Kentucky across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
The PAC recently added Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve as affiliate members for football. Onderko reports directly to the PAC Presidents' Council and is responsible for conference administration and public relations.
A Robert Morris University graduate and a native of Jamestown, Pa., Onderko served as the assistant sports information director at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1992-95 and was a public relations intern for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1992. He was the sports information director at Westminster College from 1995-2006. Onderko and his wife, Pam, have three daughters.
He sat down recently with the Post-Gazette's Rich Emert to talk about the addition of CMU and Case Western to the PAC for football and where the conference is headed.
Q: Does the addition of Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve to the conference for football put the PAC in a good position?
A: It's an exciting time, it's a historic time actually. Now with the addition of these two affiliate members we are at an all-time high with our membership ... 12 teams. Go back just 12 years and we were at five schools and on the verge of falling apart as a conference. For that to turn around in such a quick time ... it has continued a trend that was already there with adding four schools over the past five or six years. [Carnegie Mellon and Case Western] are signature institutions, not just nationally but world-wide. For us to be affiliated with them in any way, academically, athletically, it's such a win for us as well as for them. It's one of those rare deals where everybody benefits.
Q: Did the price of winning a football championship in the PAC go up with the additions of CMU and Case Western?
A: I think the price has gotten higher and I don't think that's a bad thing. When Thomas More came in and then Saint Vincent and Geneva ... every time you add a team it raises the bar for everybody. Everybody has to step up their game just to keep up. What happens is the rising tide lifts all the boats to some degree. It wasn't that long ago we were struggling to get one team into the [NCAA Division III] playoffs. Over the last six, seven years we've had two teams in the playoffs three times. I think our chances of being a two-team conference for the playoffs also go up considerably because of adding these two great programs and the format we are using where you do have a chance to have two power teams in the conference. I think our national reputation will continue to grow. It already has to a certain degree, which is why we got two teams in [the playoffs] to begin with.
First Published January 5, 2012 12:00 am
