http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/col.../11754977/

Ever since announcing RU and UMD, there have been some snarky comments about how the women's volleyball team will now be making regular travels from College Park to Lincoln. It looks like the conference has already addressed this issue.

Excerpt:


Question: With 14 schools and the Big Ten trying to play more conference games, how did the puzzle come together in each of the sports?

Answer: It was really challenging. When you announce expansion, everybody gets really excited about football and basketball because that's what fans are used to following. We've had a little more time this time around than we did with Nebraska. That led to more thoughtful discussions (about) what makes the most sense.

Going to 14 schools doesn't automatically mean 14 schools sponsor each sport. Sometimes it makes it an even number and others made it challenging with a nine-team tournament. A lot of moving parts with the regular season and the tournament postseason championships. Coaches, administrators and the faculty reps have been involved in the process. Student-athlete welfare was at the forefront of their minds. Input from the faculty is to make sure we're keeping the student-athletes in class as much as possible.

Q: How much discussion was there about divisions in other sports besides football?

A: The notion is once you get to 12 or more schools sponsoring a sport, it probably makes sense to consider divisions. At the end of the day, there wasn't a big push. Administrators really deferred to each group. At least look at it if it's 12 or more schools, but the coaches' groups ended up in a place that they're comfortable with.

Q: With the conference now spread from Nebraska to the East Coast, do regular-season schedules lean more toward geography in some sports?

A: Almost in all of our sports, travel partners, a divisional model or the geographic considerations were made in putting together the schedules. Softball has a divisional scheduling model, but they don't formally recognize those divisions. Men's lacrosse, for example, created a schedule where you wouldn't have more than two flights in a year. Men's soccer used a mileage chart in an effort to make it as equal as possible. When a team has four away games, you don't want them to be the farthest part of the conference.

Q: Are individual sports required to play a minimum number of conference games?

A: No minimum games. Wrestling and women's gymnastics are the only two individual sports that have regular-season schedules. Men's gymnastics talked about it but is not implementing a conference schedule. We've had limited conversations, but the individual sports have opted to schedule the way they have and come together in the tournament.

Thanks for posting this!