Pending approval by the Western Athletic Conference athletic directors, the conference volleyball championship match will be moved to a Sunday to avoid a conflict with the University of Hawai'i's Nov. 22 football game, the conference office confirmed yesterday.

The WAC Championships had originally been scheduled to run Nov. 20 to 22 — Thursday through Saturday — at the Stan Sheriff Center. But that would have meant that if the eight-time defending tournament champion Rainbow Wahine were in the championship match, they would play opposite the UH-Idaho football game at approximately the same hour.

WAC athletic directors, senior women's administrators and faculty representatives are scheduled to open three days of meetings today in Phoenix, where the volleyball tournament issue is on the agenda. The proposal before them, which has been sent to all member schools, would move the dates to Nov. 20 to 23 with a day off on the 22nd. Passage is expected.

The volleyball tournament had been in place well before the WAC came out with its 2008 football schedule in March. UH coach Dave Shoji had been urging a change so the two events did not present a conflict for fans.

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said there were "a limited number of Saturday dates that will accommodate UH football."

WAC coaches have wanted to keep the tournament on a Saturday night but UH was against moving the Idaho game to the afternoon, fearful of a drop in attendance.

UH football has an open date on Nov. 15 but playing on that date would have deprived the Warriors of an open week after back-to-back road games (Nov. 1 at Utah State and Nov. 8 at New Mexico State).

UH closes its WAC football season with Idaho before non-conference games with Washington State (Nov. 29) and Cincinnati (Dec. 6).