A lot of folks, including some schools, teams, fans, etc are not particularly enthused about these moves. Sure as fans of a team in the B1G, we can stand up and puff out our chests and exclaim that we have a seat at the B1G kids' table, but the stark realities of that are not all that appealing for most parties involved.
Behind a paywall, but The Athletic has a story on this about B1G men's' hoops coaches talking about the downsides of these new additions. Sure football drives the bus, but is it driving the bus off the cliff for everyone else involved?
"But coaches also want to figure out how an 18-team league with four squads on the West Coast will schedule games without creating the unintended consequence of contenders too gassed and worn out to actually contend in March. “The million-dollar question,” as Purdue coach Matt Painter put it."
“Certainly the argument could be, hey, they’re young guys,” Holtmann says. “But any of us who’ve looked at sleep studies and travel and nutrition and how that impacts performance over a long period of time — it has a real impact. NBA teams will tell you that. College teams would tell you that. That’d probably be my only question for those of us outside of football.”
"Pikiell, when contacted Friday, required confirmation from the caller that his league had, in fact, expanded again. He hadn’t followed the blow-by-blow over the previous few days nor has the Scarlet Knights coach spent much time cogitating on the ramifications for the schedule. Why bother? He would be, as he put it, the last to know anyway.
“The way they presented it (when UCLA and USC joined) was every other year, one trip out to L.A., so that really wasn’t a big deal,” Pikiell said. “It was probably going to be more taxing on them. It really wasn’t that big of a deal for us. Now, I don’t know. I wish I knew more.”
Here, Pikiell joked: “But no one cares what I think.” In jest, yes, but also, very true. He is not wrong."
theathletic.com
Behind a paywall, but The Athletic has a story on this about B1G men's' hoops coaches talking about the downsides of these new additions. Sure football drives the bus, but is it driving the bus off the cliff for everyone else involved?
"But coaches also want to figure out how an 18-team league with four squads on the West Coast will schedule games without creating the unintended consequence of contenders too gassed and worn out to actually contend in March. “The million-dollar question,” as Purdue coach Matt Painter put it."
“Certainly the argument could be, hey, they’re young guys,” Holtmann says. “But any of us who’ve looked at sleep studies and travel and nutrition and how that impacts performance over a long period of time — it has a real impact. NBA teams will tell you that. College teams would tell you that. That’d probably be my only question for those of us outside of football.”
"Pikiell, when contacted Friday, required confirmation from the caller that his league had, in fact, expanded again. He hadn’t followed the blow-by-blow over the previous few days nor has the Scarlet Knights coach spent much time cogitating on the ramifications for the schedule. Why bother? He would be, as he put it, the last to know anyway.
“The way they presented it (when UCLA and USC joined) was every other year, one trip out to L.A., so that really wasn’t a big deal,” Pikiell said. “It was probably going to be more taxing on them. It really wasn’t that big of a deal for us. Now, I don’t know. I wish I knew more.”
Here, Pikiell joked: “But no one cares what I think.” In jest, yes, but also, very true. He is not wrong."
How will Big Ten manage 18-team, bicoastal basketball league? 'I have zero clue'
Oregon and Washington bring value but also logistical quandaries to the league's hoops slate. Is a 22-game (or more) schedule coming?
theathletic.com
