A glance at the conference standings for University of Hawaii football and Rainbow Wahine volleyball teams prompts a head shaking double take at the moment.

As in, when was the last time that, simultaneously, UH’s football team was in first place in its conference and the Rainbow Wahine weren’t atop theirs?

Think about that for a minute.

You probably have to go back to 1992 — before many of the current players were born — to find such a situation at a similar mid-October, or later, juncture in a season.

In 1992, the football team was en route to an 11-2 record, a  share of its first conference championship, Holiday Bowl title and top-20 finish in the polls. 

Volleyball was on the way to a 15-11 record, fourth-place finish in the Big West (11-7), and, for the only time in head coach Dave Shoji’s coaching career, left out of the postseason.

Of course, football has only played one Mountain West game with seven remaining, including Saturday’s contest at San Diego State. Meanwhile, 10 volleyball matches, six of them at home, are still to be played, so there is plenty that could change for both teams in the next few weeks. 

In the case of the Rainbow Wahine (12-5, 4-2 conference), who try to pick up the pieces from an 0-2 road trip during this open week in the schedule, it does make you wonder whether we’re just dealing with a brief anomaly or something more serious.

When UH rejoined the Big West in 2012 after 15 years in the Western Athletic Conference it was hailed as a game-changer that would raise both the quality and the perception of the once formidable volleyball league. 

Last year, with a three-way tie for the title and three teams placed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years, it appeared as if UH had, indeed, forced its Big West sisters to up their game. Enough certainly to keep UH, which rolled unbeaten in its first year back, from winning the crown outright in a three-loss second season. 

But this year, based upon early results, the question might actually be: Has the Big West really risen that much  — or has UH just fallen?

"I don’t know, it is hard to say," said Shoji, who has more fundamental issues on his mind at the moment, such as how to reverse the slide.

To be sure Cal State Northridge has made strides and Long Beach State is better than it was last year. But back in 1992, when the Big West was in its glory years, before the flood of BCS and TV money vastly altered the landscape, its teams were regulars in the poll. That year, when UH finished fourth in the conference standings, all the teams ahead of it were nationally ranked: Long Beach State (No. 3), Pacific (No. 4) and UC Santa Barbara (No. 13). 

But it is revealing that even though both Long Beach (14-4, 4-0) and Northridge (12-4, 3-1) knocked off UH last week in California, neither managed to crack this week’s AVCA Top 25. 

That’s a snapshot opinion of what the 60 coaches who voted in the poll think at the moment. 

Now, we wait to see if the Rainbow Wahine can do something about it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.