The Mega Realignment
- Thread starter pokeyshu
- Start date
I think many of us have suggested this…BUT having a high profile name suggest it adds weight.
And….oddly…this may benefit the other sports in ways other than geography.
There is one thing football needs…at least as they’ve shown to now…and that’s the colleges name.
So…ironically as with the players getting paid for NIL, the schools themselves may be able to leverage their “names” to football in exchange for otherwise total freedom…for a price…the other sports may be the beneficiaries.
Play leverage whenever you have it…and maybe this would provide it
And are their swimming teams, volleyball, golf, lacrosse, track, well you get the idea…Are they ALL playing on the west coast this year?
Because…. They soon will be
No, only a handful of teams do it, and it’s not done regularly.
They are called non-revenue sports for a reason.
golf and swimming are totally different:
1. Again they already travel a lot and their comps are set up differently
2. You couldn’t have picked a worse example as those two sports in particular are probably more excited than any to include west coast
And yes volleyball and all other teams already travel A LOT in major conference
Time will tell if it’s a big deal or not. Personally, I think a national schedule could be taxing for 19 to 22 year old students. They could be burnt out by March.
Penn st
Maryland
Oh st
Mich
Mich st
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
All have multiple teams playing on the east coast and west coast…with many playing standford, UCLA and Oregon regularly for years in multiple sports not basketball and football
Including field hockey, volleyball, gymnastics, golf, wrestling, track and swimming
Also these conferences aren’t dumb and some of these sports don’t require the conference to play one another basically ever. So, in those cases with a weaker program or different teams it will never be an issue anyway
Maryland
Oh st
Mich
Mich st
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
All have multiple teams playing on the east coast and west coast…with many playing standford, UCLA and Oregon regularly for years in multiple sports not basketball and football
Including field hockey, volleyball, gymnastics, golf, wrestling, track and swimming
Also these conferences aren’t dumb and some of these sports don’t require the conference to play one another basically ever. So, in those cases with a weaker program or different teams it will never be an issue anyway
Let me ask this question:
Do you think B1G coaches in: golf, volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer, swimming etc are using USC and UCLA to recruit or are they now nervous that kids will say..I’ll go to an acc school because they don’t travel as much?
I can pretty much guarantee you a huge majority of B1G coaches immediately starting using this as a huge plus to recruit.. hey come play volleyball at Maryland..you play Penn st AND USC every year and get to go to California
I should clarify my position. I am not saying it’s NOT taxing etc or good/bad.
My point is this has largely already been going on at elite D1 level and no one said anything. Now it’s a bigger deal because so manny people are upset at realignment because it isn’t 45 years ago anymore and it hurts their memories and nostalgia (and I don’t disagree with them but now it is what it is)
And again I’ll say, I’ve sent a lot of kids to MAAC schools and a few to B1G programs and the only kids to ever complain about travel are MAAC kids going from Iona/Rider/ Marist to play Niagara in winter/early spring..that’s a horrible bus ride
Zero people bring that up. I’d rather go from Penn at to UCLA than Iona to Niagara on a bus
I don't know what impact this will have. I can't tell the future, but we will find out eventually. I do think 5 months of national travel could be mentally taxing for college students.
Clearly there is a concern for the travel and there has been for a while at least with West Virginia. Missouri AD complained about it also.
sports.yahoo.com
West Virginia, which moved to a conference out of its region, complains about travel issues
One of the biggest jokes about realignment is that teams joined conferences that made no geographical sense for them. But, schools liked the idea of more money, so whatever. If all of your "rivals" are a time zone away and … <a...
One West Coast AD told The Athletic that those schools should budget another $10 million per year just for travel across non-revenue sports, and still says the time/mental health toll will be larger than the monetary costs.
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um...I didn't "pick those two"...I listed 7....as examples...you chose to "cherry pick" those two to try and make a point that the travel is comparable to today.
We dont have to agree.....to me....the travel uptick in sports other than the marquee two will expand exponentially.
just look at the comments our UConn posted made about their travel in the AAC...which is only to the midwest!
I would love to see West Virginia's travel costs and mileage travelled in total for all sports the last year they were in the Big East and first year of the Big 12.
Expanding these conferences is going to have a significant impact on travel and related costs. It will create a toll on the student/athlete as well as cutting non-revenue producing sports.
I suspect that the B10 will split the schools in division for non revenue sports to minimize travel and expenses. No concern for student athlete welfare whatever. Naked money grab.
Wonder if there are rules in minimum conference size to retain an ncaa bid. Will pac 12 lose their auto bid with next year with only a 4 league team. Would not he surprised with big 10 or other super conferences starts to petition to receive multi auto bids.
Big 10 doesn’t need any more auto bids! They’re always all gone after the first round!
In Phil Mushnick column today: a fan noted that first it was players and now entire universities have entered the transfer portals.
An astute (and humorous) observation.
An astute (and humorous) observation.
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