Or Southern Cal’s volleyball team getting to State College, Pa., to play Penn State.Īnd they have to make those sorts of trip repeatedly during conference play. Think about Central Florida’s baseball team going from Orlando to Provo, Utah, to play BYU. Men’s and women’s basketball is a bit more difficult because of more away games, but again, chartered flights elevate much of the strain.īut what about volleyball? Or track? Or swimming? Or softball?Īn overwhelming majority of the time, such programs fly commercially, and the flights are rarely direct. If you’re on the football team, travel isn’t a huge issue there are only five or six away games and flights are chartered. With a couple of Power Five conferences soon to stretch across at least three time zones ― the Big 12 will cross three while the Big Ten will cross four ― more may eventually become transcontinental, too. This is the tip of a very large iceberg that isn’t being talked about much in the frenzied expansion of conferences ― and it could have a significant impact on college athletes, especially in Olympic or non-revenue sports. “There’s just some challenges that we’re going to have to work through on travel,” Lyons said.Ĭarlson: Alynah Torres and Cydney Sanders weren't a package deal, but they're happy to still be together Having more far-flung teams means the Big 12 may not always be able to avoid travel craziness for the schools on the fringes. Starting next year, the Big 12’s footprint will expand dramatically with the addition of BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston. “That has to be kept as a priority, too,” Lyons said, “but now it’s going to be more than us.” Even though he’s at the farthest-flung school in the conference, Lyons actually has little concern about his teams getting crazy back-to-back road trips.Įven though the Big 12 can’t eliminate long trips for the Mountaineers ― West Virginia is 855 miles from its closest conference foe, Iowa State ― the league has always done what it can to make sure the Mountaineers avoid such things. What he doesn’t fear are over-the-top travel issues. Oh, the West Virginia athletic director wants to see if his teams get a tough string of opponents or a fluky stretch of games, but every administrator has those concerns. Shane Lyons doesn’t worry much when the Big 12 releases conference schedules.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |