In time their attentions will be focused on things like yards per carry averages, completion percentages, third-down efficiencies and turnstile counts.

But, at the moment, the numbers University of Hawai'i athletic administrators check daily, with near-fearful frequency, concern the ... price of oil?

"I check it every day, as a matter of fact," UH athletic director Jim Donovan admitted. "I have 100 shares of Chevron, but that is not why I check it."

Instead the reasons lay at the core of UH's bottom line, where the Warriors have been staring at travel costs that have doubled in less than a year. When oil prices reached $140 a barrel three weeks ago, UH officials say what had been a $400-$425 airline ticket to the West Coast for each player on one of its teams last year became an $800-$850 fare for the same flight this year.

Fuel that was $52 a barrel in January 2007 hit an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel in trading Friday before settling at $145.08, numbers that underline — for a school that puts all 19 of its teams on planes each year, some of which regularly log 30,000 miles per season — just how precariously perched UH is.

At 2,500 miles from its nearest Football Bowl Subsection (formerly Division I-A) opponent, "Hawai'i faces something that most universities don't," UH-Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw said of the distances that must be traveled. "Travel is so expensive ... for us."

So when oil costs began shooting up this year, they caught UH's attention for several reasons. Not only does a rise impact what UH pays to compete on the Mainland, it shapes what UH must pay to bring opponents here. And, in addition, UH fans, forced to spend more of their income on gas, can be left with declining disposable income for tickets, pay-per-view subscriptions and logo apparel.

Last year 13.5 percent of UH's $29.1 million in expenses, including the Sugar Bowl, went to team travel, according to associate athletic director Carl Clapp. In a non-Sugar Bowl year, the Warriors are still looking at nearly 10 percent, Clapp said.

CHARTER PRICES SOAR

Last year the Warriors took charter flights to the Mainland, some that went all the way to their game sites. This season, they will fly commercially to the Mainland and take some charters from there to the sites.

The bankruptcies of Aloha Airlines and ATA have made charters harder to come by for UH, which had used Aloha for several years. But charters, even when available, have become "prohibitively expensive" for long trips this year, Donovan said, and will not be employed "over the water."

For example, Donovan said the Warriors paid $85,000 to charter to San Jose, Calif., for last year's game with the Spartans, and $125,000 to Idaho. Donovan said UH was quoted a $319,000 fare for Fresno State this year.

As a result, for the Aug. 30 season opener with Florida at Gainesville, Fla., where the Warriors would have likely chartered all the way, they will fly commercially to and from Atlanta. They will headquarter there before chartering in and out of Gainesville.

Even with the elimination of so-called over-the-water charters, UH said it is still projecting to spend more on travel at somewhere north of $3 million. Just how much remains to be seen, and UH is gambling it won't get much steeper.

Donovan said travel for football and the fall sports has either been ticketed or is in the works. But UH is waiting before purchasing most of its fall travel and is budgeting based upon the $140-a-barrel level.

"It is a crap shoot," Donovan acknowledges. "If oil stays the same or comes down, then, good. But if it rises significantly, then ..."

VISITING TEAMS WARY

The other half of the equation involves visiting teams. Non-conference opponents that might have come here for a guarantee large enough to cover travel costs and put a little in the piggy bank now are in a holding pattern or balking. "They aren't sure where prices are going to stabilize and don't want to spend their whole guarantee on just getting here and going back," Donovan said. "They'd like to leave here with at least some money in the pocket, too."

Donovan tells the story of an athletic director at a Bowl Championship Series school he was talking to about a football date. The AD was enthusiastic ... until oil prices hit the then-record $140-a-barrel mark. Since then, he has yet to hear back.

Coincidence? "People look at Hawai'i saying what a great place it is to visit and how great of an experience it would be for their team," Donovan noted. "But, they say, 'Boy, is it getting expensive to go there.' "

Should prices continue to rise sharply, nonconference opponents might be only half of UH's problem. Western Athletic Conference opponents could begin balancing the positives and negatives more sharply too.

When UH was voted into the WAC in 1977, it came with the stipulation that the school would help subsidize travel by conference opponents to Hawai'i.

Subsequent UH athletic directors fought to get that overturned, and the policy was waived in 1996 when the WAC expanded to 16 teams. Three years later, travel costs were cited as a contributing reason Hawai'i was not extended an offer to join Brigham Young and the seven other breakaway schools that formed the Mountain West Conference.

So far, UH and WAC officials say, there has been no movement afoot to reinstate UH underwriting travel costs, but it has been a back-of-the-mind concern for UH ADs for years.

FANS FEEL PINCH

Then there are fans who have to shell out for higher-priced gas to get to work, school and running errands. Thirty-one percent of respondents to a Mainland study said they would make cuts in entertainment spending to help offset the rise in gas prices, www.CareerBuilder.com reported this week.

"If a family here was spending $100 a month on gas and has to now spend $200, it makes sense that entertainment is one of the areas they are going to look at (cutting back)," Donovan said.

Associate AD John McNamara said UH has attempted to structure its pricing to appeal to fans at different levels, and has cut ticket prices in several selected seating areas in all sports.

"We want to make it affordable for all our fans, including students, senior citizens and families," McNamara said.

Meanwhile, at UH the watch on oil prices continues until, at least, turnover ratios and quarterback efficiency reports come out.