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Who travels? Who remains in their backyard? from thewizardofodds.com

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domeronaroll

BamaNation Citizen
Dec 17, 2005
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The Wizard of Odds
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Who Travels, Who Doesn't



When the NCAA Board of Directors voted to add a 12th regular season game in major college football starting in 2006, the hope among fans was that it would rekindle intersectional rivalries.

Who could forget USC-Alabama of the 1970s or Notre Dame-Miami of the 1980s?

Instead, the 12th game merely exacerbated a disturbing trend of big-time teams scheduling home victories against lesser opponents. Nowhere is this more the case than in the Southeastern Conference, whose teams have traveled the fewest number of miles in the past 10 years. Check out the above chart.
Click to expand...
 
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kcin_4_BAMA

RV Moderator
Oct 3, 2005
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The Wiregrass
A couple of things, these are not directed at the poster, but just the principle:

1: How many different ways are people going to continue to point out their "opinions" about the SEC playing a weak OOC schedule? I will invite hawaii, fresno st., or any of the top 10 teams on that list to join the SEC, take up residence in an sec city (so they dont have to travel as much, of course ;) ) play the conference schedule & then re-consider their current schedule....something tells me they would stay where they are to avoid 3-9 seasons...

2) I would like to see relative distances between every school in each conference....some conferences are simply more "spread out" than others, thus skewing this data a bit.

3) Something tells me hawaii knew they were going to travel when they created their fb program.

4) Notre Dang needs to join a conference (just needed to get that point out there......again)
 
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RollTideRandy

3rd Team
Dec 10, 2001
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Newnan, GA
I was about to point out that Hawaii is in the WAC which is first on that list.

To further prove your point, please note that the furthest distance between two schools in the SEC is Kentucky and LSU, which are about 750 miles apart. Compare that to the Pac-10 (5th on the list), the furthest distance there between two schools is Washington State and Arizona State which are about 1450 miles apart. That means their conference covers almost double the total area as the SEC.
 
C

CornBiscuit

Suspended
Oct 2, 2005
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Mobile, AL
Now go ask the other teams if they wanted to travel that much or had to because of a lack of prestige and needed to make some money?

I know this may not support their argument, but the fact that we have a large concentration of schools next to each, unlike out west, could that possibly be another reason?
 
RkyMtnTide

RkyMtnTide

3rd Team
Jul 3, 2007
260
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Tuscaloosa, United States
The SEC is just doing it's part to stop global warming and begin our withdrawal of depending on fossil fuels!:)

We should be applauded as the Greenest Athletic conference and put in contention for a Nobel Prize.

Wait, didn't Urban Meyer invent the Nobel Prize?
 
rgw

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
20,852
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Tuscaloosa
SEC schools are just geographically closer. Alabama is ~90-100 miles from Auburn and MSU. UT and UGA are around 3-5 hour drives. LSU is about 7 hour drive, as is Florida. Fayetteville is about the only SEC school that is far enough from most schools to be a charter plane trip for the team.
 
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squib

1st Team
Sep 24, 2005
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This chart counts only non-conference traveling. So the tight bunching of SEC schools has no influence.

BUT...
This model seems to imply that travel miles equate to tough schedules. The most traveled team in the country is Hawaii. Hawaii's strength of schedule was 137. There goes the argument the author tries to make.
 
A

Alanbama27

All-American
Sep 24, 2003
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Hoover, Alabama, USA
squib said:
This chart counts only non-conference traveling. So the tight bunching of SEC schools has no influence.

BUT...
This model seems to imply that travel miles equate to tough schedules. The most traveled team in the country is Hawaii. Hawaii's strength of schedule was 137. There goes the argument the author tries to make.
Click to expand...
That is my point exactly. This chart doesn't show anything other than miles traveled. It doesn't show how any of those miles equate to playing a tougher schedule. This is a stupid argument they are attempting to make. Also, only going through '07 doesn't give Auburn credit for traveling to Kansas State, which they will do next year...however, it credits Kansas State with traveling to Auburn. In other words its a random look at things from someone obviously biased.
 
CrimsonNeck

CrimsonNeck

1st Team
Jan 8, 2004
626
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Elsewhen, Alabama
RollTideRandy said:
To further prove your point, please note that the furthest distance between two schools in the SEC is Kentucky and LSU, which are about 750 miles apart.
Click to expand...
Agree w/your points, HOWEVER, I do want to point out that the distance from Fayetteville to Gainesville is about 980 miles, making it the longest road trip in the SEC.:)
 
KrAzY3

KrAzY3

Hall of Fame
Jan 18, 2006
10,617
4,542
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kraizy.art
Well, I think what this tells us is pretty obvious, the crappier conferences travel the most. Top four: WAC, C-USA, MWC and Sun Belt. Bottom four: SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big Ten.

If this tells me anything, it is that is another indicator that the PAC 10 is overrated. They are right between the Sun Belt and the MAC...
 
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