Poll - If Gonzaga Should Join Us In Big East...?

[XU85]

I voted no not because of concern for our student athletes, but because it's hard for me to imagine that much travel not having a negative effect on Gonzaga's basketball program. If the basketball program suffers, what would be the point of adding them in the first place. It seems likely the extensive travel would likely have a negative impact on the recruiting as well. WVU may a test case for this hypothesis, although Gonzaga's travel would be even more extensive.

[Dave]

hooligan - i suggest reading past the first line of my post - it's clear you did not

i don't think anyone insinuated that that they are busing - again - go back and look - two/three plane changes from providence to spokane - i'm guessing once you get to SEATAC - every destination in the WCC is direct.

1250 miles - SEATAC - San Diego - a hike but maybe 3.5 hours - not too bad - doable since direct

3025 miles - SEATAC - Providence - good god!
2870 miles - SEATAC - LaGuardia - ever so slightly less sucky than to PU

the truth is - CU is in the best shape of any school as far as travel goes if GU were added - but i still think this is asking far too much of our student athletes.

a voice of reason...

[Dave]

Gonzaga charters their own jet and they do it on a smaller revenue stream than the Big East schools. If any BE schools are flying commercial, they should be ashamed of themselves.

Bill, I think you have some Providence connections? Which non-rev sports teams at Providence charter flights? Women's volleyball on a charter to Spokane?

[Dave]

Do you travel? Have you ever competed athletically?

Fly to Spokane, make your 2 connections, compete, fly back, make your 2 connections, and compete again. Don't even worry about the extra missed classes.

Heck, don't worry about competing, just fly to Spokane and back, check your bags, deal with the travel... I bet you will not feel like it was just an extra few hours sitting vs. a bus trip or a short flight to Connecticut.

The Zags have been eliminated from consideration.

Who flies commercially? Jeez. Zags already don't fly commercial for their sports b/c they're already so far away, even in the WCC.

And yes I have competed in sports. I take roughly 20 flights a year. Do you think they get in their the night of the game? Standard policy is to fly in 1-2 nights ahead of a match.

Why is standard policy to fly 1-2 nights ahead of a match if the travel is no big deal? If there are 2 games a week how is this practical for student athletes going to class?

[ElDonBDon]

Don't the Zags have their own private plane? Don't they fly to San Diego every year? Obviously it's closer to Spokane than NYC is, but still.

Anyway, logistically it'd be nice if we could take only the bball team and save the expenses of flying the womens field hockey team around. Plus, with creative scheduling, maybe they could hit SHU, SJU in one trip, Gtown and Nova in another.

Im sure the presidents of the BE (and GU) have thought of all of these possibilities already; there is a reason that the zags arent in any expansion rumors so I defer to the inside knowledge of our presidents, but I would really, really like to have Gonzaga in the conference.

[billyjack]

The goal of this thread was to get a sense of where all of us stood on the Gonzaga question... for us, it's basically 50/50... for Zags fans on their site, they're at around 50% yes and 42% no, and 8% not sure. So BE fans and Zags fans are pretty much in the same place.

I'm in favor of getting Gonzaga if we do expand. But I'm not in favor of expansion, at least not yet. At a minimum, I'd like to see a bunch of games ooc with some Big East schools vs the Zags.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. And check their message board out too. Very knowledgeable fans, very realistic, good group to be associated with, and basketball-first...!

[DumpsterFireA10]

More surprised that Gonzaga's vote was so close as well.

[aughnanure]

Do you travel? Have you ever competed athletically?

Fly to Spokane, make your 2 connections, compete, fly back, make your 2 connections, and compete again. Don't even worry about the extra missed classes.

Heck, don't worry about competing, just fly to Spokane and back, check your bags, deal with the travel... I bet you will not feel like it was just an extra few hours sitting vs. a bus trip or a short flight to Connecticut.

The Zags have been eliminated from consideration.

Who flies commercially? Jeez. Zags already don't fly commercial for their sports b/c they're already so far away, even in the WCC.

And yes I have competed in sports. I take roughly 20 flights a year. Do you think they get in their the night of the game? Standard policy is to fly in 1-2 nights ahead of a match.

Why is standard policy to fly 1-2 nights ahead of a match if the travel is no big deal? If there are 2 games a week how is this practical for student athletes going to class?

Rest, time on the floor/gym. Generally a competitive advantage. Get comfortable and get your bearings. More of a mental thing than anything, but travel does stress and exhaust you some. Very rare for a team to get in and plays the same day/night. Marquette get in at least 2 days before (i.e. leave on Tuesday after class for a Thursday game).

Never said travel has no impact or anything, just that its not like Gonzaga is in freaking Paris or something and our teams don't already travel far all week. Hawaii makes it work and they travel far. Hell Gonzaga already travels really far. I just think they're worth one extra road trip west a year. Would be nice if they had a more attractive partner than BYU or St. Mary's (i.e., UNLV with no football).

[Bill Marsh]

i care about our student athletes going to class

i care about them graduating

i care about them not spending their already full lives in airports and on planes - all of which detract from the possibility of them being a "normal" student. i'd prefer that our warrior poets get to go to the library, grab a pizza with their friends, hit an off campus FAC to meet some girls - all in between the NCAA allowed practices and kicking all other NBE team's asses on a regular basis.

i also know that no other sport besides basketball will be doing charters - so yeah, plane changes and all that other stuff matter

so - if you don't give a crap about any of your women student athletes or soccer players, or cross country, or baseball - then by all means - let's add gonzaga - in fact - let's see if hawaii is interested in joining - i'd love a trip to the beach every year punctuated by a hoops game.

why the hell not.

Let's come back to the real world.LOL.

[Bill Marsh]

hooligan - i suggest reading past the first line of my post - it's clear you did not

i don't think anyone insinuated that that they are busing - again - go back and look - two/three plane changes from providence to spokane - i'm guessing once you get to SEATAC - every destination in the WCC is direct.

1250 miles - SEATAC - San Diego - a hike but maybe 3.5 hours - not too bad - doable since direct

3025 miles - SEATAC - Providence - good god!
2870 miles - SEATAC - LaGuardia - ever so slightly less sucky than to PU

the truth is - CU is in the best shape of any school as far as travel goes if GU were added - but i still think this is asking far too much of our student athletes.

Why SEATAC? Gonzaga is in Spokane, not Seattle.

I guess the solution for PC is to fly out of Logan where it can be done with one stop in 7 hours. How long do you think it took to bus a Providence team to DC in the old days? That didn't deter them and they did it every year.

But why in the world would Providence not be flying its team by charter? That way it's a 5 hour trip from the Providence airport and 2270 miles. It's less than 5 hours for NYC teams and 100 miles shorter.

This is a trip that Providence basketball would make once every other year for goodness sake. Minor sports might not ever have to make the trip. Those schedules are accomplished differently.

Don't forget that with BYU in the league, it would be a 2 for 1 road trip. The flight home from Utah would be only 6 hours commercial, 4 hours by charter.

This simply is not the nightmare you're making it out to be. You're trying to create obstacles and present worst case scenario rather than trying to solve the problem. If Providence made the NCAA tournament and were assigned to a regional tournament in Spokane, they would find a way. Both the Big West and the WAC conferences already manage travel and schedules with similar distances and with smaller budgets. This isn't a hypothetical; it's already being done in the real world.

Let's throw one other piece of the solution into the mix. The Big East would schedule the schools with the worst trips during December/January intercession. Then the kids don't miss a minute of class time.