C7 to announce league membership tomorrow?

[UConnDan97]

The decision to stay in a relationship is much different than one made from scratch about whom to associate with.

Not really. In the business world (which is what this is), both are based on money...

 

[CL82]

Right, the ESPN offer was $13m + per team

What I'm saying if ESPN keeps the gross number the same as the rejected offer and the BE has less teams, then arguably both sides can make the deal and claim victory.

 

[Vowelguy]

Not really. In the business world (which is what this is), both are based on money...

Thus, since UConn is in a conference with Tulane, we can therefore conclude that if it got to start a new conference, UConn would choose Tulane.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The flight to warm Florida is a pleasure and a cinch. It's direct Now try flying direct from Philly to chilly Nebraska. You can't. In fact, there are direct flights everywhere to Dallas and Houston as well.

Tried to make this point yesterday. The conference were looking at is an air travel league, and it's being set up as the easiest air travel league that it can be.

I still say that as soon as the Athletic departments at Texas and Oklahoma get a good taste of flying in to Pittsburgh, and then driving an hour and half into a different state for their athletic teams to West Virginia - that marriage is going to be on the rocks.


For a realistic example of what it would be like for Texas to get to Morgantown....take your basketball team, and pretend you just got your teams on flight out of Austin to go play UConn, except ithe flight is landing at JFK, and you've got get your bags, get on a bus, head out on the VanWyck and cross the bridges and ride up to Hartford.

 

[upstater]

What I'm saying if ESPN keeps the gross number the same as the rejected offer and the BE has less teams, then arguably both sides can make the deal and claim victory.

I see. Well, I'm expecting a huge bump, but since we don't even know the number of teams, we can only concern ourselves with UConn's take. That being said, since ESPN certainly has a lot of inventory, maybe they do have a set amount because they can only show so many games. In which case, it makes much more sense to keep the conference small. Which is what I favor anyway. 10 teams.

 

[Vowelguy]

I still say that as soon as the Athletic departments at Texas and Oklahoma get a good taste of flying in to Pittsburgh, and then driving an hour and half into a different state for their athletic teams to West Virginia - that marriage is going to be on the rocks.

For a realistic example of what it would be like for Texas to get to Morgantown....take your basketball team, and pretend you just got your teams on flight out of Austin to go play UConn, except ithe flight is landing at JFK, and you've got get your bags, get on a bus, head out on the VanWyck and cross the bridges and ride up to Hartford.

Don't the FB and BB teams travel by charter? (There _is_ an apt in Morgantown.)

Also I thought you said 90 mins from Pitt to M-town, and I can't imagine there's much chance of traffic congestion? JFK to Hartford could be 2 ... or a lot more depending on traffic.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Don't the FB and BB teams travel by charter? (There _is_ an apt in Morgantown.)

Also I thought you said 90 mins from Pitt to M-town, and I can't imagine there's much chance of traffic congestion? JFK to Hartford could be 2 ... or a lot more depending on traffic.

So the entire big 12 is going to charter flights for their entire athletic departments, instead of flying commercial? and traffic.....exactly.

Truthfully, I don't know the runway characteristics at Morgantown Municipal, but I've been there, and it's not going to be taking jets regularly from points west and south to texas, unless it gets some major work. The majority of aircraft out of there are rotor driven.

 

[freescooter]

Most major college teams fly charters except in a few limited cases. Pretty tough to book 125 seats between Morgantown and College Station. On the other hand some college basketball teams don't charter. I remember hearing an interview with the Seton Hall AD acouple of years ago and he was saying that was something he intended to change. SHU was flying lots of commercial flights. Some schools might fly the occasional commercial flight if it is to a location that is relatively easy to reach via direct flight and their are convenient flight times that match up with games. And didn't the UConn women take the train to Philly last year one time?

 

[Vowelguy]

Truthfully, I don't know the runway characteristics at Morgantown Municipal, but I've been there, and it's not going to be taking jets regularly from points west and south to texas, unless it gets some major work. The majority of aircraft out of there are rotor driven.

Ah, gotcha.

 

[Vowelguy]

And didn't the UConn women take the train to Philly last year one time?

Yes, but UConn women are the exception in flying charter. Almost no other women's team does.

 

[upstater]

Don't the FB and BB teams travel by charter? (There _is_ an apt in Morgantown.)

Also I thought you said 90 mins from Pitt to M-town, and I can't imagine there's much chance of traffic congestion? JFK to Hartford could be 2 ... or a lot more depending on traffic.

Isn't that his point? That the trip to Morgantown is similar to a trip to Hartford via JFK?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Most major college teams fly charters except in a few limited cases. Pretty tough to book 125 seats between Morgantown and College Station. On the other hand some college basketball teams don't charter. I remember hearing an interview with the Seton Hall AD acouple of years ago and he was saying that was something he intended to change. SHU was flying lots of commercial flights. Some schools might fly the occasional commercial flight if it is to a location that is relatively easy to reach via direct flight and their are convenient flight times that match up with games. And didn't the UConn women take the train to Philly last year one time?

I don't know what the 1-A requirements are anymore for qualification, meaning the number of sports. I think it's 17. UConn has 22. Football is flying charter jet. Basketball, if the program $ wise strong enough will fly charter. The rest of the programs are flying commercial, and commerical travel to Morgantown, is via Pittsburgh.

I don't even think the runway at Morgantown is capable of landing a typical passenger jet. I don't know if I'm right or not, but I bet Oklahoma, got their first taste of traveling to Morgantown via PIttsburgh in the fall.

But the greater point, is that the Big East - whatever the hell it turns out to be, as an all sports league, is being set up as a commercial jet travel league. There won't be many trips that can be made by all the varsity sports via ground travel.

With that in mind, it's pretty clear that we're building schools through major air travel hubs, and television markets.

 

[Vowelguy]

Isn't that his point? That the trip to Morgantown is similar to a trip to Hartford via JFK?

90 minutes is similar to 2+ hours?

 

[freescooter]

Carl,

Except for baseball, which travels a lot anyway, and football and the basketball programs, most teams don't play lots of conference games anyway. Hockey is mostly a bus league and will become more of one once they join Hockey East. If you look at how soccer traditionally schedules, it is mostly local teams and I suspect they'll try to keep it that way. The other teams, track, swimming, and so forth already travel mostly by plane to major competitions around the country and by bus around the New England New York area. The Big East championships in swimming, track, cross country, golf etc are decided in a day or a weekend, not over the course of a season. So it really doesn't matter where you travel.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Carl,

Except for baseball, which travels a lot anyway, and football and the basketball programs, most teams don't play lots of conference games anyway. Hockey is mostly a bus league and will become more of one once they join Hockey East. If you look at how soccer traditionally schedules, it is mostly local teams and I suspect they'll try to keep it that way. The other teams, track, swimming, and so forth already travel mostly by plane to major competitions around the country and by bus around the New England New York area. The Big East championships in swimming, track, cross country, golf etc are decided in a day or a weekend, not over the course of a season. So it really doesn't matter where you travel.

Not true, you are correct about the non-revenue sports having less air travel, but when it comes to football, it definitely does matter. When it comes to basketball, it definitely does matter. Those are the money making sports. Look at our Team - Playing in Indiana, and then less than 48 hours later again in Hartford. THat kind of thing happens pretty regularly with basketball. As for football, there are so many people, and so many bags, and so much , that you don't want to be playing planes trains and automobilies to get from home to your team hotel and get your equipment to the facility. 4-6 hours of travel, is still 4-6 hours of travel whether it be ground or by air. But you start taking 4-6 hour flights, and still have 1-2 hours of ground travel after, and you start to really make things hard. Bradley is about a 1/2 hour from Storrs. That's a pretty good standard. under an hour from leaving the plane to getting to where you need to be is ideal.

 

[Carl Spackler]

90 minutes is similar to 2+ hours?

Pulling teeth now. Pittsburgh International to Morgantown is taking you anwhere from 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs depending on traffic, maybe longer. WIth no traffic, you can make JFK airport from hartford in just under 2 hours. You can make it from new haven to JFK - with no traffic in under an hour.

Don't miss the point. I could care less about Morgantown, WV at this point. What i'm saying is that we're building a league that is clearly air travel based for the money making sports, and it doesn't make sense to be including programs that make it hard to travel, meaning LONG trips, not distance wise - TIME wise - especially for basketball.

A 4-6 hour flight, within a single time zone, is really no different than a 4-6 hour bus ride (except in cost). THe difference lies in what you do when you step out of the plane, as opposed to the bus dropping you off at the doorstep.

 

[Vowelguy]

Pulling teeth now. Pittsburgh International to Morgantown is taking you anwhere from 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hrs depending on traffic, maybe longer. WIth no traffic, you can make JFK airport from hartford in just under 2 hours. You can make it from new haven to JFK - with no traffic in under an hour.

"With no traffic". A laughable comment referring to NYC. And given that JFK is 76 miles from New Haven, I find it hard to believe you could get there in less than an hour even at 3 am.

There's traffic in southwest PA & WV? I doubt it. Morgantown is 75 miles from Pitt.

 

[upstater]

"With no traffic". A laughable comment referring to NYC. And given that JFK is 76 miles from New Haven, I find it hard to believe you could get there in less than an hour even at 3 am.

There's traffic in southwest PA & WV? I doubt it. Morgantown is 75 miles from Pitt.

There is lots of traffic around Pitt, like any other city.

 

[Carl Spackler]

"With no traffic". A laughable comment referring to NYC. And given that JFK is 76 miles from New Haven, I find it hard to believe you could get there in less than an hour even at 3 am.

There's traffic in southwest PA & WV? I doubt it. Morgantown is 75 miles from Pitt.

Really? This is what you've got time to argue about?

I've driven the Van Wyck from the Whitestone Bridge directly into JFK with no stops at 5pm on a weekday, and i've sat dead stop in traffic for hours too. I've made it from Hartford to Newark in less time than I care to admit, b/c I wasn't follwoing the speed limit.

What is it? You don't like the comparison? You don't think it's a realistic comparison, that a trip to Hartford via JFK would be essentially the same thing as a trip to Morgantown via Pittsburgh International? Alright, I give. I should have said New Haven, so as to make sure that my CT analogy was a shorter actual distance than Pitt to Morgantown.

Is that more important to you than the greater point? That the catholic schools are going to face with their expansion plans? A flight to certain destinations, is going to be a lot more travel than expected, especially during the course of basketball seasons. a football team only needs to travel 6 times a year.....

Sheesh.

 

[upstater]

Is tomorrow today? Or is tomorrow tomorrow?

 

[Fishy]

Is tomorrow today? Or is tomorrow tomorrow?

Yes.

 

[UConnDan97]

Thus, since UConn is in a conference with Tulane, we can therefore conclude that if it got to start a new conference, UConn would choose Tulane.

No, that is a non sequitur. However, what you CAN conclude from UConn being in a conference with Tulane is that we feel there is more money being with Tulane and this conference than being an independent.

The C-7 forming its own non-football league is not a new concept. This has been talked about for years. So one can conclude that the reason they didn't do it before now (even in the midst of all the turmoil) is that they expected a better pay-day in the NNNBE, which they did expect. With Boise, SDSU, Rutgers, and Louisville, this was going to be close to a double-digit deal, if not in the teens, per each school. Dennis Dodd had us as high as 14 million plus, until Rutgers and the Ville hit the road.

So there's your answer...pretty simple, really...

 

[uconnfan68]

Bradley is about a 1/2 hour from Storrs.

By plane.

 

[Hoophound]

By plane.

It's about 40 minutes most times.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I drive fast. I've always been fast. I love speed. I'm slower now, than I was in the past, in many ways. But I love speed. The autobahn was built for people like me.