Some leagues have more challenges than others when it comes to staging postseason competition. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the Pacific West Conference, for example, have to go the extra mile since their leagues contain schools from Alaska and Hawaii.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference, with two Alaska schools, five in Washington and one each in Oregon, California and Idaho, stages league championships only in cross country and outdoor track and field, since travel budgets already are stressed from regular-season travel. Driving to games in Alaska is not an option; it takes at least two flights.

In the Pac West, which has four institutions in Hawaii, one in Montana and one in New Mexico, every conference regular-season event for the mainland schools involves air travel, said Pac West information director Travis Elam. Plus, teams visiting Western New Mexico University have to add a four-hour drive after the flight because Tucson and Phoenix are the closest airports to the Western New Mexico campus in Silver City.

The league is so geographically diverse in fact that it declares regular-season champions as its automatic qualifiers in men's basketball, softball and women's volleyball since it is cost-prohibitive to have a conference tournament for those sports.

"Would it be nice to have a conference tournament? Sure," Elam said. "But our schools can't afford to make the additional trip each year." Elam said team travel can approach $15,000 for one trip in some cases. He said any revenues the tournament would generate probably wouldn't offset the travel costs for league members.

The Pac West does conduct championships in men's and women's tennis, and starting next year, postseason events in men's and women's golf and men's and women's cross country will be added.

"The conference championships for tennis, golf and cross country will be the only times all six conference schools meet each year," Elam said. "If you know what a normal Division II cross country budget looks like, you can understand the effect of an additional $15,000 for travel."