Cleaning out the notebook as we move closer to the resumption of the conference men's and women's basketball campaigns following a successful fall sports season.
3 Regional Team Champions: The GNAC claimed three of the five region titles in sports sponsored by all three DII conferences in the West.
Congratulations go out to Simon Fraser women's cross country, Seattle Pacific women's soccer and Western Washington volleyball for their regional crowns.
The other regional crowns went to CCAA members -- Chico State (men's cross country) and Cal State LA (men's soccer).
Volleyball Trend: For volleyball, 2021 saw the continuation of a recent trend in which the GNAC has led its regional conference counterparts for most berths in the NCAA West Regionals.
This past season, the GNAC made up half the eight-team regional field; along with Western Washington (No. 2 seed and the conference automatic qualifier), Central Washington (No. 6), Simon Fraser (No. 7) and Alaska Anchorage (No. 8) earned at-large bids. The CCAA had three entries and the PacWest one.
Not counting the 2020 season, which was canceled as a result of the pandemic, the GNAC has consistently led the way in most berths to the West Regionals since 2013. In that eight-year period, the GNAC has claimed 44 percent of the 64 total berths, the CCAA 33 percent and the Pac West 22 percent.
Hoops Play Resumes Dec. 30: Conference play in men's and women's basketball restarts at the end of the month as most teams quickly get back into the GNAC grind following the mandated DII winter-break period (Dec. 21-27). The second week of conference play takes place over the New Year's Day weekend and marks the start of nine consecutive weeks of GNAC action. The regular season culminates with the announcement of the conference tournament fields Saturday, Feb. 26.
The 2021 GNAC Basketball Championships, featuring the top six teams in each gender, are scheduled for March 3-5 at Marcus Pavilion on the campus of Saint Martin's University.
More Strong Academic Numbers: We recently shared the news regarding the GNAC's positive numbers related to its overall academic success, and more good news has continued to come our way.
The NCAA recently announced the 43 institutions across all of Division II which have been honored with the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. To qualify, institutions must have a student-athlete graduation rate of 90 percent or higher based on division-wide metrics.
The GNAC was one of seven DII conferences with at least three members earning this recognition. Seattle Pacific was honored for the 11th consecutive year, Western Washington was recognized for the fourth time in the last five years, and Saint Martin's earned the award for the first time.
