Post by Whup Em All on Mar 30, 2022 14:52:29 GMT -6
I know I probably shouldn't start this thread, because several of us here who post (or at least lurk) over at the CSNBB site are absolutely sick of the nonsense between CUSA and the "SBC3"... so let me explain where I'm going with this...
I am NOT -- I REPEAT, *NOT* -- trying to start a "which conference is better" debate. That's already been done to death. Here's a summary: Football goes to SBC by a nose; Basketball goes to CUSA by a mile; Baseball goes to SBC by a mile. And SBC currently has the better media deal. As for footprints, both stretch across most of the U.S., but SBC has the benefit of geographical divisions, which will help defray travel costs for SOME members. CUSA members will have to play round robin in everything.
Divisions... Travel costs...
Hey... now that I brought those up, that brings me exactly to the point I WOULD like to discuss on this thread! Which conference is better ... for JSU?
Let's start with our old friends down in Pike County. Here is their 2022 conference football schedule:
App State (EAST)
Marshall (EAST)
USM
Tx St
USA
LaLa
ULM
Ark St
Breaking that down, it's two rotating teams from the East, plus 6 fixed games against their West division brethren. They'll also have 4 OOC games at their disposal, but I'm not worried about those.
Let's look first at the East division. There are two reasonably nearby teams there, Ga State (193 miles) and Ga Southern (296 miles). But troy state will only play those two (in football) once every few years, so that's hardly a point in their favor. Most years, troy state will be looking at a schedule like 2022, with their two East opponents an average of 570 miles away. (The East as a whole averages 522 miles from the city of Troy.)
In the West, the trojans' nearest divisional opponent is USA, at 170 miles, followed closely by USM at 250. But the rest of their West opponents are all over 400 miles away, with Texas State taking the crown at 795. Taken together, teams in the trojans' home division average 415 miles away.
NOTE: I'm not looking at home vs away travel. The point is, if an opponent is 400+ miles away, the visiting team won't travel well. At 500+ miles, with few exceptions, only those who can fly will make the trip. And above that, distance doesn't much matter anymore, at least, within the continental U.S.
Now let's look at JSU's likely CUSA schedule:
MTSU (192 miles)
WKU (286 miles)
La Tech (455 miles)
Liberty (526 miles)
SHSU (712 miles)
FIU (763 miles)
UTEP (1,343 miles)
NMSU (1,383 miles)
I'm not going to defend travel in this conference. It sucks. But as I said earlier, above 500 miles, fans will generally be flying anyway, so from that standpoint, there's not much difference between Liberty and NMSU. (Flight costs vary too much to compare, and besides, I don't have that kind of time. The point is, you're flying.)
Here's my point, though...
Many JSU fans have long wanted in the Belt purely for the "regional" games it offered. Sure, there's troy state. That one's kind of big. But we also looked longingly at nearby games against Ga State and (for our Georgia alums, anyway) Ga Southern. But troy state is IN the Belt, and their only "regional" football games are USA and USM. In football, they'll barely play the two Georgias.
If we were in the trojans' shoes, apart from needing some disinfectant spray, we'd be stuck in the West, playing teams in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, with an interdivisional schedule which mostly featured teams in Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas.
In my opinion, it's not a lot better than what we have now over in CUSA. Especially when you consider the great possibilities our OOC schedule might provide.
What's worse, a lot of Belt fans have discussed the possibility of further regionalizing the conference by adding two more teams and breaking off into (essentially) two 8-team conferences. Admittedly, this is mostly pie-in-the-sky talk from the Appalachian region, who'd wind up with a tightly grouped bus conference if this came to pass, but guess where troy state would wind up in that scenario?
Yep. As the easternmost team in an ArkLaTex bus conference. Kind of like being in the Southland again. (shivers)
So I think we're in a good place for now.
I think we may be in an even better place in 5-10 years.
Your thoughts?
I am NOT -- I REPEAT, *NOT* -- trying to start a "which conference is better" debate. That's already been done to death. Here's a summary: Football goes to SBC by a nose; Basketball goes to CUSA by a mile; Baseball goes to SBC by a mile. And SBC currently has the better media deal. As for footprints, both stretch across most of the U.S., but SBC has the benefit of geographical divisions, which will help defray travel costs for SOME members. CUSA members will have to play round robin in everything.
Divisions... Travel costs...
Hey... now that I brought those up, that brings me exactly to the point I WOULD like to discuss on this thread! Which conference is better ... for JSU?
Let's start with our old friends down in Pike County. Here is their 2022 conference football schedule:
App State (EAST)
Marshall (EAST)
USM
Tx St
USA
LaLa
ULM
Ark St
Breaking that down, it's two rotating teams from the East, plus 6 fixed games against their West division brethren. They'll also have 4 OOC games at their disposal, but I'm not worried about those.
Let's look first at the East division. There are two reasonably nearby teams there, Ga State (193 miles) and Ga Southern (296 miles). But troy state will only play those two (in football) once every few years, so that's hardly a point in their favor. Most years, troy state will be looking at a schedule like 2022, with their two East opponents an average of 570 miles away. (The East as a whole averages 522 miles from the city of Troy.)
In the West, the trojans' nearest divisional opponent is USA, at 170 miles, followed closely by USM at 250. But the rest of their West opponents are all over 400 miles away, with Texas State taking the crown at 795. Taken together, teams in the trojans' home division average 415 miles away.
NOTE: I'm not looking at home vs away travel. The point is, if an opponent is 400+ miles away, the visiting team won't travel well. At 500+ miles, with few exceptions, only those who can fly will make the trip. And above that, distance doesn't much matter anymore, at least, within the continental U.S.
Now let's look at JSU's likely CUSA schedule:
MTSU (192 miles)
WKU (286 miles)
La Tech (455 miles)
Liberty (526 miles)
SHSU (712 miles)
FIU (763 miles)
UTEP (1,343 miles)
NMSU (1,383 miles)
I'm not going to defend travel in this conference. It sucks. But as I said earlier, above 500 miles, fans will generally be flying anyway, so from that standpoint, there's not much difference between Liberty and NMSU. (Flight costs vary too much to compare, and besides, I don't have that kind of time. The point is, you're flying.)
Here's my point, though...
Many JSU fans have long wanted in the Belt purely for the "regional" games it offered. Sure, there's troy state. That one's kind of big. But we also looked longingly at nearby games against Ga State and (for our Georgia alums, anyway) Ga Southern. But troy state is IN the Belt, and their only "regional" football games are USA and USM. In football, they'll barely play the two Georgias.
If we were in the trojans' shoes, apart from needing some disinfectant spray, we'd be stuck in the West, playing teams in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, with an interdivisional schedule which mostly featured teams in Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas.
In my opinion, it's not a lot better than what we have now over in CUSA. Especially when you consider the great possibilities our OOC schedule might provide.
What's worse, a lot of Belt fans have discussed the possibility of further regionalizing the conference by adding two more teams and breaking off into (essentially) two 8-team conferences. Admittedly, this is mostly pie-in-the-sky talk from the Appalachian region, who'd wind up with a tightly grouped bus conference if this came to pass, but guess where troy state would wind up in that scenario?
Yep. As the easternmost team in an ArkLaTex bus conference. Kind of like being in the Southland again. (shivers)
So I think we're in a good place for now.
I think we may be in an even better place in 5-10 years.
Your thoughts?