Not so sure though. All the increased travel is going to have an impact. Five to seven games back east vs west coast i think will have an impact on them. I think the best case would have been to keep the pac12 intact without any more departures.
I could be wrong but i think thos will make it much tougher for both schools to be a top team. A playoff contending team..
with a 9 game conference schedule, 3 of the games will be on the west coast for sure, leaving 6 games a year against the rest of the BIG. The 5 home games 1 year alternating with 4 home the next will flip-flop with the other west coast teams; one year the Ducks will have 2 at home against USC/UCLA/UofW, the next year 2 on the road
meaning that the Duck football team will only travel to 3 conference road games a year against the rest of the BIG. In fact, 3 games max in the eastern time zones was part of the agreement with the BIG when Oregon/Washington joined
furthermore, it's not like they will be flying to Europe. Flying to Ohio State or Michigan is around 2400 miles. But flying to Colorado or Arizona is 1300 miles. Salt Lake City is 800 miles. The only burden of those extra miles will be another hour or two on a jet. All the other components of travel:
packing and getting to the airport; negotiating the airport prior to departure; negotiating another airport after arrival; traveling to a hotel and getting a room; getting meals; leaving a hotel and going to the game venue; playing the game; leaving the venue for the airport; once again negotiating departure and arrival airports; going home and unpacking....all of that will be the same whether traveling to Seattle or Ann Arbor
the travel burden for football player is being exaggerated. The travel costs, not so much, but again, the added costs are mostly from longer flights = more fuel
it will be tougher to win the conference, that's for sure. But that won't be because of travel
now, that's all for the football teams. It's going to be different and more challenging for the other sports teams. The BIG plays a 20 game conference schedule in men's BB and an 18 game schedule in women's BB. There is already some planning for longer road trips. It won't be like flying to Arizona or LA to play just 2 games. Teams will very likely fly back east for 10-14 days and play 5-6 games. But there will still be travel between venues back east, and the players will still have some scholastic responsibilities. It will be more challenging for the players in Olympic sports. For instance: women's softball. Now, those teams play a 55-60 game schedule every year. But BIG only plays a 23 game conference schedule. So, it's easy to see an added burden but it's also easy to see ways to mitigate
if Notre Dame said today they were ready to join the BIG, both Notre Dame & Stanford would be in the BIG by Tuesday. BIG presidents would love to add Stanford (academic prestige), but FOX won't kick in any extra money for Stanford like they did for Oregon and Washington. But FOX would add for Notre Dame + Stanford. Now there is already talk about a 10 game conference schedule. and it would probably go that way if it was a 20 team conference. But the formula would remain the same 4 games out west and 3 road games back east
