Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

It does appear that Temple is somewhat on their own island. Getting permission to rejoin their ex-A10 members (grouped with BE & CAA schools would be in their best interest for non-revenue sports.

SMU and other Texas schools had been working on this for awhile and may see this pick up steam now.

(04-29-2020 09:26 AM)Pony94 Wrote:  SMU and other Texas schools had been working on this for awhile and may see this pick up steam now.

So, if you look at this suggestion---you see why the G5 wanted a blanket waiver. This type of plan--especially if activated in multiple regions, would end the ability of most every G5 conferences to sponsor FBS football. A conference needs at least 8 schools playing all minimum required sports together.

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

This alignment would be great for non-revenue sports. But not for football or basketball.

AAC baseball basically plays at a pseudo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

Yup. Some schools have sports beyond the top 2 they care about and wouldn't want to be in regionalized leagues. Coastal Carolina and ECU in particular wouldn't go along with that conference for baseball.

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

Didn't the Big East already come up with this idea with the ACC, B-10, and MAC for their Olympic Sports.

(04-30-2020 04:59 PM)panite Wrote:  

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

Didn't the Big East already come up with this idea with the ACC, B-10, and MAC for their Olympic Sports.

Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports....

I think you meant A-10 not B-10 and CAA instead of MAC....

There are other schools that are affiliates for non-revenue sports.

Dallas Baptist could be an affiliate for baseball.
Missouri State and Northern Iowa could play some sports in this configuration.
UCA is an affiliate in SBC.

The problem is that not all of the schools in these conferences do not all sponsor some sports.
Men's soccer
women's soccer
men's wrestling
women's wrestling
beach volleyball (Colorado Mesa, Tarleton State, Commerce, Kingsville etc.)
men's volleyball
women's volleyball
In some areas, baseball
softball
men and women's LAX
field hockey etc.

There are single sports conferences for gymnastics, bowling, swimming and diving, rifle, water polo, skiing, etc.

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

A bit of baseball trouble in that Southwest grouping, too, with four schools who don’t play baseball. Rice and Houston would likely be happy scheduling Tulane and others from the Mid-South group.

(05-01-2020 05:48 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

A bit of baseball trouble in that Southwest grouping, too, with four schools who don’t play baseball. Rice and Houston would likely be happy scheduling Tulane and others from the Mid-South group.

I went and googled up the baseball standings for the AAC, CUSA and Sun Belt, and it's actually five six of the ten Southwest Group school that don't play baseball. (UTEP and North Texas, Wichita, Tulsa and SMU). So for baseball, I'd guess a 15-team West Group? With El Paso, Wichita and Tulsa out, the geography of a Memphis-Mobile-Antonio triangle isn't terrible.

EDIT: Don't know what happened, but Wichita DOES play baseball, and plays in the AAC.

And yes, this is arbitrary geographic grouping that does not care about your RPI. It's an exploration of what happens if the priority is travel for non-revenue sports--in the Age of Coronavirus, it's harder to justify charter flights. (Not 100% sure that buses are better, but it's the idea we're playing with).

I'm not sure how much value there would be in trying to keep the groupings consistent--if something like this happens, the groupings might be different for each sport on a basic level. But I'm just plugging school addresses into a google map.

There might not be any benefit to setting up the 4 Groups--it might make more sense to just draw different maps for each sport.

EDIT: Or, of course, it might not be worth doing at all for a savings of a few tens of thousands per school in travel.

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

I may tweak it slightly to put MTSU and WKU in with the LA and AR schools. Slide USA over to be with the other AL schools.

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 10 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss
Memphis, Arkansas State, UALR, WKU, MTSU

East Group -- 9 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, USA

North Group -- 8 schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

If the North needed another we could try to get VCU, JMU, Liberty, CofC...

(05-01-2020 07:37 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 05:48 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

A bit of baseball trouble in that Southwest grouping, too, with four schools who don’t play baseball. Rice and Houston would likely be happy scheduling Tulane and others from the Mid-South group.

I went and googled up the baseball standings for the AAC, CUSA and Sun Belt, and it's actually five of the ten Southwest Group school that don't play baseball. (UTEP and North Texas, Wichita, Tulsa and SMU). So for baseball, I'd guess a 14-team West Group? With El Paso, Wichita and Tulsa out, the geography of a Memphis-Mobile-Antonio triangle isn't terrible.

And yes, this is arbitrary geographic grouping that does not care about your RPI. It's an exploration of what happens if the priority is travel for non-revenue sports--in the Age of Coronavirus, it's harder to justify charter flights. (Not 100% sure that buses are better, but it's the idea we're playing with).

I'm not sure how much value there would be in trying to keep the groupings consistent--if something like this happens, the groupings might be different for each sport on a basic level. But I'm just plugging school addresses into a google map.

There might not be any benefit to setting up the 4 Groups--it might make more sense to just draw different maps for each sport.

EDIT: Or, of course, it might not be worth doing at all for a savings of a few tens of thousands per school in travel.

Maybe I'm mis-reading, JBragg, but Wichita plays baseball in the AAC.

(05-01-2020 07:48 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

I may tweak it slightly to put MTSU and WKU in with the LA and AR schools. Slide USA over to be with the other AL schools.

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 10 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss
Memphis, Arkansas State, UALR, WKU, MTSU

East Group -- 9 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, USA

North Group -- 8 schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

If the North needed another we could try to get VCU, JMU, Liberty, CofC...

Being in a league with both Troy and UAB would be fun, but shifting USA eastward would make their average bus trip go from 299 miles to 463 miles. Out of your mid-south and East groups, if you took the 9 closest schools to USA then 6 would come from the mid-south group.

(05-01-2020 08:03 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 07:37 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 05:48 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

A bit of baseball trouble in that Southwest grouping, too, with four schools who don’t play baseball. Rice and Houston would likely be happy scheduling Tulane and others from the Mid-South group.

I went and googled up the baseball standings for the AAC, CUSA and Sun Belt, and it's actually five of the ten Southwest Group school that don't play baseball. (UTEP and North Texas, Wichita, Tulsa and SMU). So for baseball, I'd guess a 14-team West Group? With El Paso, Wichita and Tulsa out, the geography of a Memphis-Mobile-Antonio triangle isn't terrible.

And yes, this is arbitrary geographic grouping that does not care about your RPI. It's an exploration of what happens if the priority is travel for non-revenue sports--in the Age of Coronavirus, it's harder to justify charter flights. (Not 100% sure that buses are better, but it's the idea we're playing with).

I'm not sure how much value there would be in trying to keep the groupings consistent--if something like this happens, the groupings might be different for each sport on a basic level. But I'm just plugging school addresses into a google map.

There might not be any benefit to setting up the 4 Groups--it might make more sense to just draw different maps for each sport.

EDIT: Or, of course, it might not be worth doing at all for a savings of a few tens of thousands per school in travel.

Maybe I'm mis-reading, JBragg, but Wichita plays baseball in the AAC.

No, you're right. I must have read from a bum website.

(05-01-2020 08:03 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 07:37 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 05:48 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-30-2020 04:18 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  AAC baseball basically plays at a psedo power level. It's an RPI hit.

I also believe in conference identity. The AAC brand would be taking a minor hit in such an arrangement.

Our baseball program is probably the biggest social positive in our athletic department. This arrangement kills baseball.

A bit of baseball trouble in that Southwest grouping, too, with four schools who don’t play baseball. Rice and Houston would likely be happy scheduling Tulane and others from the Mid-South group.

I went and googled up the baseball standings for the AAC, CUSA and Sun Belt, and it's actually five of the ten Southwest Group school that don't play baseball. (UTEP and North Texas, Wichita, Tulsa and SMU). So for baseball, I'd guess a 14-team West Group? With El Paso, Wichita and Tulsa out, the geography of a Memphis-Mobile-Antonio triangle isn't terrible.

And yes, this is arbitrary geographic grouping that does not care about your RPI. It's an exploration of what happens if the priority is travel for non-revenue sports--in the Age of Coronavirus, it's harder to justify charter flights. (Not 100% sure that buses are better, but it's the idea we're playing with).

I'm not sure how much value there would be in trying to keep the groupings consistent--if something like this happens, the groupings might be different for each sport on a basic level. But I'm just plugging school addresses into a google map.

There might not be any benefit to setting up the 4 Groups--it might make more sense to just draw different maps for each sport.

EDIT: Or, of course, it might not be worth doing at all for a savings of a few tens of thousands per school in travel.

Maybe I'm mis-reading, JBragg, but Wichita plays baseball in the AAC.

No, you're right. I must have read from a bum website.

(05-01-2020 07:48 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

I may tweak it slightly to put MTSU and WKU in with the LA and AR schools. Slide USA over to be with the other AL schools.

Yeah, I didn't check the math on putting Middle Tennessee and Western KEntucky in the Mid-South.

Ahh, I see why now--that puts the mid-south at 11 schools. It might be worth doing the math to see how much mileage MT & WKU in the Mid-South saves, compared to how much extra mileage South Alabama puts on (and how much mileage FIU & FAU put on to Mobile)

(05-01-2020 08:09 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 07:48 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

I may tweak it slightly to put MTSU and WKU in with the LA and AR schools. Slide USA over to be with the other AL schools.

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 10 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss
Memphis, Arkansas State, UALR, WKU, MTSU

East Group -- 9 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, USA

North Group -- 8 schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

If the North needed another we could try to get VCU, JMU, Liberty, CofC...

Being in a league with both Troy and UAB would be fun, but shifting USA eastward would make their average bus trip go from 299 miles to 463 miles. Out of your mid-south and East groups, if you took the 9 closest schools to USA then 6 would come from the mid-south group.

Did your numbers include the F_U's? They'll hurt the numbers for any group they're placed in.

(05-01-2020 10:28 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 08:09 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 07:48 AM)JTApps1 Wrote:  

(04-29-2020 09:13 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  Inspired by the speculation about the Big East, Atlantic Ten and Colonial Athletic cooperating to reduce travel for nonrevenue sports, I threw together what "groups" would look like if the Sun Belt, CUSA and American Athletic Conference sat down around a table--actually, in the Age of Coronavirus, did a videoconference call and shared a google map.

(There was also a throwaway comment in an article that the G5 commissioners were discussing ways to reduce travel costs.)

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 9 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Memphis
Southern Miss, South Alabama, Arkansas State, UALR

East Group -- 10 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, MTSU, WKU

North Group -- schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

The Mountain West borrowing UTEP might be a possibility, but I don't know that the scheduling benefits of having 12 teams over 11 outweighs extending the footprint from Albuquerque to El Paso.

I originally had Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the North Group, but I think the travel distances are equal-or-better for everyone with them in the East Group, except for FAU and FIU.

I may tweak it slightly to put MTSU and WKU in with the LA and AR schools. Slide USA over to be with the other AL schools.

Southwest Group -- 10 schools
Wichita State, Tulsa, UNT, SMU, UT Arlington
UTSA, Texas State, Rice, Houston, UTEP

Mid-South Group -- 10 schools
ULL, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss
Memphis, Arkansas State, UALR, WKU, MTSU

East Group -- 9 schools
FAU, FIU, UCF, USF, GSU, GSU, Troy, UAB, USA

North Group -- 8 schools
Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, ECU, ODU, Appalachian State
Marshall, Cincinnati, Temple

If the North needed another we could try to get VCU, JMU, Liberty, CofC...

Being in a league with both Troy and UAB would be fun, but shifting USA eastward would make their average bus trip go from 299 miles to 463 miles. Out of your mid-south and East groups, if you took the 9 closest schools to USA then 6 would come from the mid-south group.

Did your numbers include the F_U's? They'll hurt the numbers for any group they're placed in.

Yes, but you have to put them somewhere--if you leave a school out, they bring a 100% justified lawsuit and the whole project collapses.

UTEP, Temple, FAU/FIU and Wichita stretch anyone's travel in this setup. That can't really be avoided. But FAU & FIU are closest to USF & UCF, followed by the GSU's. Once you have that group of 6, adding the Troy-UAB pair works.

You could put MTSU / WKU in the East group without changing things very much.