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PrintWhen Missouri starts competing in the SEC, travel time to away games will increase for Tiger athletes, the Marching Mizzou band and fans. This graph compares the mileage to 2011-12 season Big 12 schools to the 2012-13 season SEC teams that Missouri will play. These are "bird-fly" distances, according to Distancefromto.net. Driving distances may be longer.
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At least we still have home game to tailgate at.
It seems silly to leave West Virginia and TCU out, since they are going to be members of the Big 12.
If you add WVU (740) and TCU (651) the average goes up to 474 miles, compared with 520 for the SEC--not that big of a difference.
By the way, if you add in a school like BYU (1030)* you get an average of 520 miles, exactly the same as the SEC.
* BYU and Boise State (1276) have been discussed as possible expansion schools, although the Big East is looking at them now.
The Big East would be a great fit for Boise and BYU. When I think of Utah and Idaho I immediately think East Coast. I sometimes wonder who is running the NCAA and how they got that job. I don't know the first time about College athletics as far as fundraising goes but I do have a Geography Degree and know what regions are.
What needs to happen is the NCAA needs to step in and any conference associated with a region would have their names changed to something more appropriate. Big 10 would be alright. But the SEC would be screwed.
Or schools could just dump the NCAA altogether and align themselves however they like. Membership in it isn't mandatory. It's not a governmental oversight body. It's essentially a monopoly that derives its income solely from the exploitation of unpaid labor. It's a fantastic business model, as long as you can convince everyone that there's no alternative. Worked great for a lot of states until about 1861.
Someday, a handful of schools are going to break away from the NCAA and start their own leagues and playoffs, and finally everyone in college sports is going to breathe a sigh of relief and say "Finally! Now that someone took the first step, we can all do it." And that will be the end of the NCAA as we know it.
For some recent illustrations, google Ed O'Bannon or Taylor Branch. The whole organization makes no sense from any legal or corporate or sports standpoint.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arch...
No, the NCAA is not a governmental oversight body. It's far more influential than some governmental oversight bodies.
For the NCAA the elephant in the parlor is the fiction that NCAA Division I football and basketball are "amateur" sports. In strictly legal terms they may qualify, but that's all.
Having all players in Division I complete four years of academic eligibility (whether they go on to play their sport professionally or not) might be worth considering. Graduation wouldn't be required, but a full four years of academic exposure would be.
Consider Division III, where there are no athletic scholarships. That means all players on the team were academically qualified for admission to that university or college.
After Katrina, NCAA changed, or suspended their rules on "gifts" because they graciously "wanted to help Tulane". Not sure, but would bet that they could "help" every school with an athletic program from one end of the Gulf Coast to the other any time they wanted.
@ Corey Parks -- Won't we have more home games to tailgate at now since we are playing in a conference with more teams?
Hopefully KU's sour grapes will mean that the Arrowhead series will end for good when the contract expires in 2012. Then we can go back to having one more home game per season.