The Patriot League will make several changes in its operations in an effort to be more cost-efficient, and Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said more changes could be on the horizon.

The changes already adopted include:

•  A travel squad-size policy for all 23 league sports

•  The elimination of awards banquets at all league championships

•  The use of teleconferencing for all head coaches’ meetings and select administrative committees

The conference decided to make the changes in light of the recent economic downturn and its impact on Patriot League institutions. A committee developed a detailed list of potential strategies and presented it to the league’s athletics directors and senior woman administrators for approval. The items that received “strong, if not unanimous” consensus were adopted, Femovich said.

“We’re not done yet,” she said. “These are things that seemed to be pretty self-evident. A number of other things we’ll come back to – perhaps qualifying standards, scheduling of championships and mileage parameters for officials.”

The conference will examine each strategy through the lens of keeping both the student-athlete experience and competitive equity intact. After two years, the conference will review the cost-saving initiatives.

“I’m a believer that when you’re forced to take a hard look at things you do on a regular basis, you can often identify management decisions that are really positive. Maybe there’s a better way of doing things,” Femovich said.

“By carefully scrutinizing why and how we do things, we will come upon some things that perhaps are good management decisions even in the best economy. It’s just a good time to be reflective, to be responsible in terms of how we manage our programs.”

Femovich said a few coaches groups are concerned about the decisions, but the athletics directors are taking the lead in explaining the “hows” and “whys” of the changes, including pointing out that no one sport was singled out or excluded from the strategies.

“We needed to send a strong statement here across all our sport groups and our administrative structure,” she said. “We’re going to take some meaningful measures, and they apply to everyone in an equal way.”

The league’s leadership will meet again in May to discuss any further changes.