Welcome to the Inter Galactic Athletic Conference....alias the AAC

[DavidinNaples]

After studying the membership in UConn's new conference, I am reminded of the "bar scene" in the original Star Wars movie. Hans Solo goes into an intergalactic watering hole and every manner of creature and beast from the far corners of the universe were present. The same is true for the new AAC.

Nine Teams from New Jersey, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee join the Huskies from Connecticut. Each will play two games against UConn, one at home and one in Storrs. Just the nine away conference games will require 9,283 miles of travel. Just one way!! For example, Temple = 232 miles & Cincinnati = 792 miles. Then the travel really starts. Memphis = 1,232 miles & Univ. of South Florida = 1,261 miles. It gets even better. SMU is 1,723 miles away and Houston is 1,786 miles from Storrs. And then you have to travel back....

In 2014, the shortest trip, Rutgers (153 miles) leaves for the Big Ten. Also, Louisville (891 miles) joins the ACC. Those two teams will be replaced with East Carolina (638 miles), Tulane (1,444 miles) and Tulsa (1,495 miles). The travel, just for conference games, in 2014 will total 11,816 miles (one way) and add North Carolina, Oklahoma and Louisiana to the travel odyssey.

There is no rhyme or reason to the new AAC. Nor is there any choice. UConn and company are the flotsam and jetsam from the wreckage of the Big East and Conference USA. And the poaching of the ACC and Big Ten. Maybe all the miles can be used for the end of season trip to Nashville. Go Huskies.

 

[JimGunther]

There is no rhyme or reason to the new AAC. Nor is there any choice. UConn and company are the flotsam and jetsam from the wreckage of the Big East and Conference USA. And the poaching of the ACC and Big Ten. Maybe all the miles can be used for the end of season trip to Nashville. Go Huskies.

Geno wants a Corporate JET!

 

[jplotinus]

I should like to double check for accuracy of understanding of the OP. I grasp that the travel brought on by the distance between and among conference schools is set out and lamented. And, quite frankly, it is a long way from Storrs to Tulsa; Storrs to New Irleans; Storrs to Dallas, Houston. While it's a hike to Florida, I hesitate to include travel there as a lamentation for two reasons: 1-the symbiotic relationship between the NE megalopolis and FL; and 2-UCONN has had a Florida conference mate ever since it was in the BE, either Miami or USF.

Few are thought to have wrung hands or gnashed toothies over the Florids travel. I would put travel to New Orleans in the same category. I've never much liked Houston or Dallas, but those destinations certainly have a lot of business links with the Northeast. Tulsa might be the true outlier here, but are the people there accurately referred to as being from another planet, as the Op suggests?

Anyway, the double check I need to request is whether it is the distance between them that is the reason the AAC members are called "flotsam and jetsam" or is there another reason why the OP chooses to name AAC members that way?

The reason I am here double checking is that if the OP thinks schools in other conferences, say the ACC or B1G, are better than those in the AAC, I would beg to differ.

 

[DavidinNaples]

jpl...glad to provide a little color to my post. Please understand I live in Florida and my daughter goes too USF (South Florida) so I don't think people down here are from another planet. My son goes to UCF (Central Florida) and now I get to go to 2 UConn games down here. I'm thrilled...!!

In answer to your questions. Conferences have historically been clusters of teams in the same geographic region. The "Big East" was made up of teams from the eastern section of the country. The PAC10 was pacific coast teams, the SEC was "southeastern" schools. I find the AAC to be a strange almalgamation of schools from all over the country. It is not the various schools fault, just the leftovers getting together. When the Catholic 7 schools decided to leave the Big East (and take the name with them), the other BE schools were scrambling for new conferences. Some had already planned to leave, but teams like UConn didn't have a second home waiting in the wings. The term "floatsam and jetsam" describes what is left after something is wrecked. In this case, the conferences the AAC schools used to belong to. I think it is an appropriate comparison. The Star Wars "bar scene" analogy is humor. Sorry if that wasn't obvious. Since my two kids go to new AAC schools and my brother went to SMU I can emphatically state I don't think those schools are inferior in any way. I do think UConn is far and away the best women's basketball school in the new AAC. I also think the travel for just conference games is excessive. But what choice does UConn have? And finally, I post stuff I think is interesting and try to do it in a funny and entertaining way. Is it possible you are over analyzing the musings of a bored Huskie fan? If I can clear my post up in any other way, let me know. Go Huskies...!!

 

[meyers7]

B1G mileage adds up to 11, 519. But that's playing all schools (minus Rutgers, assuming it would have been UCONN instead of Rutgers). Not sure how their scheduling works. Longest being to Nebraska at 1420. Not quite SMU, but still quite a ways.

ACC would be much better travel wise.

 

[meyers7]

The reason I am here double checking is that if the OP thinks schools in other conferences, say the ACC or B1G, are better than those in the AAC, I would beg to differ.

You can beg all you want, ain't gonna change it.

Of course that depends on what one means by "better".

 

[Wally East]

2-UCONN has had a Florida conference mate ever since it was in the BE, either Miami or USF.

Well, no. UConn was in the Big East for a long time with no team from Florida. Miami join in the 1991-1992 season. UConn, of course, joined in the first season: 1979-1980.

 

[Wally East]

The travel, just for conference games, in 2014 will total 11,816 miles (one way) and add North Carolina, Oklahoma and Louisiana to the travel odyssey.

Doesn't this presume that the scheduler is a complete moron and doesn't couple games together? It would make logical and logistical sense to schedule USF and UCF for consecutive games, for example. Tulane and Houston and SMU and Tulsa also make sense to pair together.

 

[meyers7]

Doesn't this presume that the scheduler is a complete moron and doesn't couple games together?

I would think that would be a pretty good assumption. Considering how all this has played out.

 

[DavidinNaples]

wally....Agree it makes sense to play Florida schools in pairs with maybe a day of rest in between...same with Texas area games.... But then you need to stay in hotels for longer and games are closer together. Last year it seemed UConn played regular season games with 3-5 days in between. Unless it was a west coast swing or something like that.. Seems we will have more of that in the years to come... Of course, at tournament time they come fast and furious... maybe this is good practice...

 

[Wally East]

Not including any tournaments (post-season or otherwise), they played 5 sets of games two days apart (as in a game on 1/19 and 1/21).