08-09-2023, 10:11 PM
(08-09-2023, 09:24 PM)Sunnysideup Wrote: I don't intend to downplay the significance of travel woes, or time zone changes, but I think there are some misconceptions about non-football (presumably football would be chartered) travel to ACC competitors.
Long-time reader/lurker, first-time poster (spurred by this discussion). Grew up in a Stanford/Duke household (parents' alma maters) and now married to a Big 10 alum. Have been to many of these campuses in all 3 conferences over the years. Anecdotally my sense is that ACC travel would be LESS expensive, stressful, and time-consuming for players, families, and fans, particularly the distance from airports to these schools for the most part.
The Big 10 is getting rid of divisions, effective 2024, so there's no assumption Stanford would play the "Western" division. Yes, one would assume the West Coast Big 10 schools would be likely competitors, but just playing this out for fun to test my theory...
- Palo Alto to Duke (Durham), UNC (Chapel Hill), or NC State (Raleigh) is a direct, non-stop flight (SFO-RDU) for 5 hours, plus ~20 minutes of travel time from the airport (RDU) to one of these campuses, which are each close to the airport. Wake Forest is 1.5 hours (bus time) from RDU, too.
- To Miami - non-stop from SFO - 5 hrs, 41 minutes (direct)
- To Boston College - non-stop from SFO to Boston - 5 hrs, 31 minutes (direct)
- To Georgia Tech - non-stop from SFO to Atlanta - 4 hrs, 40 minutes (direct)
- To UVA - ~7 hours (with connection) to CHO (airport in Charlottesville).
- To Pitt - non-stop from SFO to Pittsburgh - ~5 hours (direct).
- To Syracuse - ~7 hours (with connection) to SYR.
- To Virginia Tech - ~7 hours (with connection) to Roanoke, plus 40 minute bus ride to Blacksburg.
- To Clemson - 30 minutes from Greenville (~6-7 hours with connection to GSP).
- To Louisville - ~6-7 hours (with connection) to Louisville airport (SDF).
- To FSU - ~6-7 hours (with connection) to Tallahassee airport.
- To Penn State requires a connection (through PHL or ORD to SCE) - fastest, with connection times, from SFO is 7+ hours for flying time alone. Delta doesn't even serve Penn State's airport (State College) anymore; flight options are limited for fans, not to mention players/teams. It's a 3 hour, 30 minute DRIVE from PHL, if you try to take out the connection (non-stop SFO-PHL is 5 hours, 30 minutes), assuming you don't hit traffic.
- The fastest way from Palo Alto to Indiana is likely flying to Indianapolis, which is about 1 hour away by bus/car. There is ONE SFO-IND flight a day, it is a red-eye that leaves at nearly 11 PM from SFO, and it's 4 hours, 45 minutes long. Otherwise you're talking connections and ~6-7 hrs of flying time, just to get to IND.
- To Univ. of Iowa, you're talking about flying to Eastern Iowa Airport (~6-7 hours of flying time with a connection, plus 20 minutes to campus, limited flight options); Quad Cities, which is an HOUR away by bus from campus (7 hours flying time, with connection); or Des Moines (2.5 hours by bus to University), with ~5.5 hours of flying time with a connection.
- To Urbana-Champaign, you can fly to Champaign's airport with a connection if you get the tiny plane from Dallas or Chicago (~7 hours of flying time) on American. Otherwise it's 2+ hours of bus travel from the Chicago, St. Louis, or Indianapolis airports.
- To Lincoln (Nebraska), it's ~5-6 hours of flying time, with a connection.
- Purdue is 1 hour bus ride from IND, so see the above IND conversation (~6-7 hours with connection if you don't take the one red eye from SFO).
- Ohio State - Columbus has 1 morning non-stop a day from SFO (4.5 hours). Otherwise, it's ~6-7 hours with connection.
- Michigan State - 1.5 hour bus ride from Detroit (4.5 hour non-stop) or ~6-7 hour flight time with connection to Lansing.
- Michigan (~30 minutes from DTW - 4.5 hr non-stop), Minnesota (3.5-4 hr non-stop to MSP), Northwestern (~30 minutes without traffic from ORD - 4.5 hr non-stop), Rutgers (~30 minutes from Newark - 5.5 hrs non-stop), Maryland (any of the DC airports, ~5 hours non-stop) do have direct flights.
Maybe it's a wash in the end, but I wouldn't agree that Big 10 travel would be "better" for non-football athletes or fans. In fact, I'd argue it's easier/faster to get from Stanford to Duke, UNC, NC State, Boston College, Miami, Pitt, or Georgia Tech than it is to get from Stanford to Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue, or the University of Illinois (some of the current "Western" division of the Big 10).
A good argument for letting UW and UO being the guinea pigs and see how it works out for them.