LATROBE — More than any other year in recent memory, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference is up for grabs.

“It could be. I hope it is,” said Grove City College coach Chris Smith. “I hope we can just step in through that doorway and take it ourselves.”

Last year marked the first time in several seasons in which the champion had one conference loss.

That champion was Thomas More and the Saints are the favorite to win the title again in 2012.

It’s the fifth straight year the preseason poll has Thomas More on top.

The Saints return 17 starters from a team that went 9-2.

But other teams lurk and have a chance at unseating the Saints.

Waynesburg has 13 returning starters, including senior tight end Adam Moses, a two-time preseason All-American who has caught 79 passes in his career.

Former Seneca Valley High School football coach Rick Shepas, who has been at the helm of the Yellow Jackets for seven seasons, is looking for big things out of Moses this season.

“After watching his basketball tapes, I was sold on him,” Shepas said. “He’s got a great skill set and I feel very lucky to coach a player like him with some pro potential.”

Washington & Jefferson, which was the top dog in the conference for years, is looking to rebound from a disappointing 6-4 campaign last season.

One of the Presidents’ big weapons will be Knoch graduate and senior running back Tim McNerney.

A big problem for W&J last season was turnovers. The Presidents have turned the ball over 80 times in the last four years after coughing it up only 10 times in their last PAC championship season in 2007.

“We have to eliminate the mental mistakes, especially turnovers and penalties,” said W&J coach Mike Sirianni. “We stressed the importance of taking care of the football during spring practice. I think close to half of our turnovers last year came in the red zone and that was the difference in the close games we lost. That’s on us as a coaching staff and we are determined to change that.”

Bethany College is also poised to make a push this season after a 5-5 finish in 2011.

The Bison have slowly rebuilt their program under coach Tim Weaver.

Bethany has finished .500 the last two seasons.

“We don’t want to lose track of where we’ve come from,” Weaver said. “We are now in a position to compete every week, which is not where we were when we came in. But we also enter camp with the mindset that 5-5 is not the goal.”

And then there’s Grove City College, which finished 3-7 overall, but won three of its final four conference games last season to give the Wolverines hope for 2012.

Grove City is picked to finish eighth out of the nine-team PAC, which is more motivation for a turnaround.

Four of the Wolverines’ seven losses last season came by less than a touchdown. Grove City also turned in a huge win over W&J.

“You look at last year and some of the things that happened that have rarely happened before,” Smith said. “You had a PAC champion that was not undefeated in the conference. Waynesburg beat Thomas More. Thomas More beat W&J. We beat W&J. Everyone knocked each other off.”

That parity can only help a team like Grove City, Smith said.

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” Smith said.