Zero downside for me! Lol. I'll be attending my first (mens) hoops game since '96 next year. I was able to attend RU women's hoops here in the Portland Regional one year and RU soccer here as well. But having hoops and football here on the west coast is awesome.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."
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
The Downsides of 4 West Coast Teams in the B1G
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It is not a free education none of these kids get a full ride and most pay half or more. Baseball only has 11.7 scholarships and Lacrosse only has 12.6. Lacrosse carries 50 on the roster baseball Carrie’s like 45. If they are lucky they will go during spring break so they don’t have to worry about classes, otherwise they will have very little time for sight seeing especially if they are driving from Eugene to Seattle which is over. 4 hour drive probably on a Friday after the game and they would have to fit class, studying, treatment and practice. Most of these kids will see the inside of a plane, a hotel room and a bus
Have you ever watched those games? They're Brutal.
A lot of kids aren't fine and many play worse as the session wears on.
That's not what the word "free" means.
If you have to perform a service in exchange for something, that thing you get in exchange isn't "free". You did work to earn it.
It will not really affect us, most sports take a trip somewhere far to play in a tournament anyway, whether its golf, baseball, soccer etc. A weekend trip in most of these sports (or thursday-sunday) to play one LA team and one PNW team (or both LA teams, or both PNW teams, etc) just replaces that. As a Rutgers fan im not worried about us. But for the PAC schools, its going to be hard
These teams are not located in Australia. Sheesh talk about over reacting. At most they may have 2 of these road trips each year or in the case of Volleyball 1 trip where they likely play Friday and Sunday. I am sorry but you can’t tell me 18-22 athlete can’t handle that.
Seriously do people forget that you have college athletes having 9 hour bus rides to game and you are over reacting to a 5 hour flight? Sure it might be 2 hours longer than the previous longest flight.
Are you shocked posters here always look for the down side first? I'd think you have stopped by often enough to know that😄
You do realize they been dealing with this for decades? This is not a new issue. You have D2 and D3 teams making 10 hour bus rides to games. They manage it. Even in the BIG many the teams will still bus or take vans that have 5 plus hour trips. This is not a new problem.
That guy was full of crap. He has visions of the athletes loafing around Disney Land.
Haven't heard a single person in about this who thinks it will be good for the sport or for the individual schools. The only ones that benefit are the people running the SEC and the Big 10.
I’m sure if you’re as soft as a pillow a flight to LA sounds daunting. I do it all the time and I’m not 19 anymore. I get some work done or watch a movie. Maybe a nap.
You like to complain. Not everyone is like you.
Then 'travel' will become a consideration for the student athlete and their families as to what schools they choose to attend.
Other than football and bball, players in general don't get full scholarships. For softball, allowed a max of 12 for 20+ players. Players are on partial scholarships (1/4, 1/2, etc) or walkons. So for most in the other sports, it is not a free education.
Have you ever been to Jackie Robinson stadium, home to UCLA baseball? It is one of the premier old time facilities in the country and will be an absolute highlight for the baseball team as will being on and around UCLA's campus.
Appreciate the info. As a college baseball player at Rutgers, would you have liked the idea of playing teams like UCLA and USC on the road?
Let's face it, 99.9% of college athletes are not going to be a pro athlete. So maybe this increased travel makes some high school athletes make the tough decision and determine to pursue their career goals and drop out of sports as they head into college. That's what our son did and it turned out to be the best decision of his young life. Matter of fact this week he is 1 of 3 university pilot students nationally (he is the only soon to be junior, the other 2 are going into their senior years) that were selected by Proctor and Gamble to attend their prestigious annual pilot student development program at their Global Flight Operations Center in Cincinnati. He is working with, learning from and networking with the Best of the Best in Corporate Global Aviation. In his opinion (as well as my wife and mine) that is the 'All Star Team' to be on and sure beats the grind of college baseball with an infinitesimal shot at making it to the Bigs.
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Get JK Schneiderman, Rutgers director of business and travel operations, on TKR podcast to discuss travel implications of the B1G’s geographic expansion.
Look at their college options and determine which schools travel schedule makes the most sense for the student and their family.
Would you kill for a trip to CA if you couldn't even go outside. If these kids are truly student athletes there isn't time to see new places. It is just a 6 hour plane ride with the jet lag that goes with it.
There is a reason we see the players wearing undergarments that take heart rate and other things. Spending time on airplanes and switching time zones is not going to be whoop (or whatever they use) friendly. The flight is basically a waste of time. Maybe i am not like other people....I don't get quality sleep on a plane, I get sick trying to read on a plane, I am tired after a plane ride.
So the players are going a total of 4 hours longer on flights and 3 time zones. Why? So they can play the Washington Huskies?
This is so dumb and why players need to be paid.
There are probably 15-20 college programs equivalent or better than UW within a 3 hour drive of Rutgers.
Ok but didn’t you play weekend series in which you would be in the same place for 3-4 days? Soccer, volleyball and lacrosse do not do that.
1907–08 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain - Wikipedia
Athletes are soft these days.
Check out this road trip. Australia, Sri Lanka, England, Wales. Travel by ship and train. 46 rugby games.
Players funded the travel. When they were reimbursed, they were banned for life.
Seems logical to me. I’d imagine there are kids who may not have the opportunity to travel to see the west coast that might actually view a trip to Seattle and LA as a benefit. Something to look forward to and not dread.
Some kids will view this as a positive, others as a negative. Same with real life work. Some view travel as a positive and some see it as a negative.
Just like real work, kids have a choice. If the idea of traveling the country in a national conference is too much, don’t do it. Choose to play in a conference with less travel.
Some truth to think. Kinda like if you don’t view NIL and semipro sports as a positive at a university you can choose to not be a rutgers semipro sports fan.
We played a regional schedule except for Florida roadtrip at the beginning of the year. We also didn't have the advantage of online learning. To date myself, had to use the pay phone in the hallway of the dorm to call home. Given the ability to continue to do work online, one trip out west would work. More than that, no.
Not basketball but off the top of my head the FB team has played H/H verses Washington and Wash St and played away at Fresno St in the past 10 years. Women's golf has played in Cali (twice), Colorado (twice), Arizona, and Mexico in the past 2-3 years. In '22 Baseball played in Hawaii and had 2 Cali teams on the sched that were postponed.
Who is concerned ?? I don’t think anyone really cares . It’s all about football and $$
Big difference between a 20 year old and Middle Aged guys like ourselves when taking a 6 hour flight.
Teams will be taking a cross continental trip once a year - maybe twice a year for the western schools. . It’s not a big deal.
In simplistic terms ( and in all seriousness ) take Monmouth when they were in the MAAC. For 20 conference games , they never took a plane. It was all bus rides. The average bus ride was probably a few hours with the dreaded trip to Buffalo ( to play Niagara and Canisius) taking 8 hours. I’d argue that being on a bus for 8 hours to Buffalo is a lot worse than a charter flight cross country.
We need to stop pampering student athletes. They know what they’re signing up for. If they hate the travel , they can easily use the transfer portal.
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