Pitt-Johnstown’s sports teams could be finding a home much closer to home.

So while UPJ’s athletic leadership attends the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s annual meetings in Charleston, W.Va., this week, the school could be moving toward joining the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

It’s not that the Mountain Cats were unhappy with their affiliation with the WVIAC – by all accounts they were quite content in the historic West Virginia league – but they were given little choice but to seek new options when the nine football-playing members of the conference announced last month that they were leaving to form their own league. That left schools like UPJ, which does not have a football program, out in the cold.

But things heated up quickly for UPJ. In the end, it could end up being a positive for the Mountain Cats.

Within hours of the announcement that Charleston, Concord, Fairmont State, Glenville State, Shepherd, West Liberty, West Virginia State, West Virginia Wesleyan and Greensburg’s Seton Hill were leaving the WVIAC, the rumors linking UPJ to the PSAC started, and with good reason.

UPJ had looked into joining the Pennsylvania league several times over the years when the Mountain Cats were playing independently, but two key factors worked against them.

First, UPJ is not a member of the state system. That was a major stumbling block in the past, but the PSAC admitted private schools Mercyhurst and Gannon in 2008 and is much more open to going outside of the state system now.

Second, the Mountain Cats didn’t have a football program. They still don’t – although university leaders have said they would be open to discussions about launching one – but that also isn’t the hurdle to joining the PSAC that it used to be. Conference member Mansfield dropped its football program in 2006, and PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray told our Mike Mastovich that the league is open to the possibility of adding members that don’t play football.

“Now that we’ve seen a school without football and lived to tell about it, it makes sense for other issues,” he said.

Murray doesn’t have the power to approve UPJ’s move to the PSAC – that rests with the university presidents – but his opinion on the matter likely will go a long way on determining whether or not it happens.

And, the way Murray raved about UPJ, it’s not hard to guess which way he is leaning.

“The UPJ campus is gorgeous. I love the layout,” he said. “The school is up on top of the hill. The basketball facility certainly fits in with our league nicely. Our baseball teams already play Johnstown at the Point. This is something even the West Virginia conference reiterated when we spoke to them: UPJ is good citizens, they’re good people, they do the right thing.”

We hope that the PSAC will do the right thing and add UPJ. Oddly enough, Seton Hill – one of the schools that left the WVIAC in the lurch – is likely to join UPJ in a bid to join the Pennsylvania league.

While we don’t agree with schools switching conferences regularly in a bid to get the best financial deal, this move would make sense for UPJ, Seton Hill and the PSAC.

The conference would get two more quality athletic programs – including one with facilities it already uses on a regular basis – that are natural rivals for some of their schools.

The geographic fit and rivalry potentials also make it appealing for UPJ. Imagine a wintry basketball night in December, which is going to attract a bigger audience: Pitt-Johnstown vs. IUP at the Sports Center or the Mountain Cats hosting Bluefield State, which is located 51⁄2 hours away?

Seems like a slam dunk to us.

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