(09-28-2015 08:07 AM)shere khan Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 07:51 AM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 07:27 AM)UHRedcat96 Wrote:  The biggest barrier we face compared to the P5 conferences is geographic Incompatability. SMU is our closest team. The next closest is 6.5 hours drive. Tulsa is 10 hours for the UH fan. Forget travel to the other games until I retire. They are just to far.
I like what is going on with our league, but it is hard to establish rivalries when your average fan can make one or two away games a year.
In the Big XII the horns can day trip it to OU, OSU, BU, TCU. It helps get the rivalries going. SEC and BIG 10 are the same way. Hopefully tv will trump all because it is our one advantage over the G5s.

Cincinnati's closest "rival" is Memphis, and that's an eight hour drive. At least we're not UConn.

Cincy is a good fit for the Mac

Believe me, I prefer any of the other teams in the MAC over Memphis... But alas...

The people driving conference realignment aren't the least bit concerned with any geographic proximity. Those days are long gone.

(09-28-2015 01:30 PM)BugsyCT Wrote:  The people driving conference realignment aren't the least bit concerned with any geographic proximity. Those days are long gone.

I don't think that's completely true. I think UConn to the Big XII would raise some geographic problems. Then again, WVU did it and east coast Maryland went to the midwestern B1G so who knows.

UConn to the Pac 10 now! lol

Your natural home is the ACC of course. Hope you get there.

If you believe travel distances are bad now, you should have seen the nightmare if Boise st was in this conference. The national university of Taiwan would be closer to most of us than Boise.

The challenge, as I see it, is being frozen out with scheduling by closer teams.

If ECU can continue to play home and homes with North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia, ECU can handle a conference playing Connecticut, Temple, Central Florida, South Florida, and Cincinnati without a challenge to geography.

If those games start drying up because P5 refuse to play in Greenville, ECU gets hurt with scheduling.

The Florida away game may be the new trend for ECU and that is not good.

What it would mean to Houston's attendance to have LSU, Texas A&M, or Texas visit the Cougars.

(09-28-2015 10:25 AM)invisiblehand Wrote:  Yup... it looks like the only schools that are really getting screwed as far as having a couple of driveable rivalries are Cincy & ECU. No close drives for either of them.

Solution:

AAC trades Cincy to B-12 for Kansas who will remain awful in football, but pay for itself in basketball

AAC trades ECU to ACC for Miami who sets up a nice triangle rivalry down in Florida.

Huh? Navy is a pretty close drive for ECU. It's unfortunate that they are our cryptonite.

Attackcoog listed 13 schools not named USM.

We really pissed some people off, didn't we?

(09-28-2015 07:27 AM)UHRedcat96 Wrote:  The biggest barrier we face compared to the P5 conferences is geographic Incompatability. SMU is our closest team. The next closest is 6.5 hours drive. Tulsa is 10 hours for the UH fan. Forget travel to the other games until I retire. They are just to far.
I like what is going on with our league, but it is hard to establish rivalries when your average fan can make one or two away games a year.

How slow do you drive? What, do you live in West Cypress/North Katy? New Orleans (Tulane) is only 4.5-5 hours away.

(09-28-2015 08:07 AM)shere khan Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 07:51 AM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 07:27 AM)UHRedcat96 Wrote:  The biggest barrier we face compared to the P5 conferences is geographic Incompatability. SMU is our closest team. The next closest is 6.5 hours drive. Tulsa is 10 hours for the UH fan. Forget travel to the other games until I retire. They are just to far.
I like what is going on with our league, but it is hard to establish rivalries when your average fan can make one or two away games a year.
In the Big XII the horns can day trip it to OU, OSU, BU, TCU. It helps get the rivalries going. SEC and BIG 10 are the same way. Hopefully tv will trump all because it is our one advantage over the G5s.

Cincinnati's closest "rival" is Memphis, and that's an eight hour drive. At least we're not UConn.

Cincy is a good fit for the Mac

Cincy is a good fit for the Metro

Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

(09-28-2015 09:02 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 07:27 AM)UHRedcat96 Wrote:  The biggest barrier we face compared to the P5 conferences is geographic Incompatability. SMU is our closest team. The next closest is 6.5 hours drive. Tulsa is 10 hours for the UH fan. Forget travel to the other games until I retire. They are just to far.
I like what is going on with our league, but it is hard to establish rivalries when your average fan can make one or two away games a year.

How slow do you drive? What, do you live in West Cypress/North Katy? New Orleans (Tulane) is only 4.5-5 hours away.

Sorry about the slow drive. I travel with the women folk...sets me back an hour or more depending on the trip.

You

(09-28-2015 02:43 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  If you believe travel distances are bad now, you should have seen the nightmare if Boise st was in this conference. The national university of Taiwan would be closer to most of us than Boise.

The original plan was for Boise, BYU, Air Force, and SDSU to be our western members. Who cares how far it is at this point? That conference as originally envisioned literally would have sucked all the air out of any room discussing the G5.

Thus far this season, the first two weeks would have been filled with national headlines due Temples win over Penn State and BYU's Hail Mary victories. Boise would have made headlines when they lost a CONFERENCE game to BYU. Undefeated Temple, Navy, Houston, and Memphis would have picked up the national banner in weeks 3 and 4--with ECU and Boise putting the cherry on top of the conference headlines with P5 victories. ESPN would be calling Aresco for once.

Sure, we are doing pretty good right now--but, jeez---what we could have had would have been incredible. This year could have truly been a year to make that potential conference a VERY valuable TV property moved everyone else to a completely different level.

(09-28-2015 09:26 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

Greater NYC--my behind. If Hartford is near New York, it's also close to Boston. For that matter, Philadelphia is greater New York.

(09-28-2015 09:26 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

you have obviously never flown into Greenville. scary.

(09-29-2015 06:10 AM)tigerjeb Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 09:26 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

you have obviously never flown into Greenville. scary.

Scary - no, not the easiest - yes. The drop into Cancun or Miami in bad weather is scary. All little airports are about the same. The biggest pain about PGV is getting there from a major airport. Most flights come in through Atlanta or Charlotte which are both total headaches.

(09-29-2015 06:10 AM)tigerjeb Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 09:26 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

you have obviously never flown into Greenville. scary.

They are appropriately placed.

(09-28-2015 11:31 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(09-28-2015 09:26 PM)firmbizzle Wrote:  Airport league.

Houston
Dallas
New Orleans
Memphis
Tulsa
Orlando
Tampa
Cincinnati
Philadelphia
Hartford (Greater NYC)
Baltimore
Greenville.

Greater NYC--my behind. If Hartford is near New York, it's also close to Boston. For that matter, Philadelphia is greater New York.

JFK or LaGuardia to Hartford is over 100 miles, and you have to deal with the bottleneck at the Throggs Necks bridge. Its actually closer to Logan in Boston than either of the NYC airports and the drive would be much easier.

(09-28-2015 05:21 PM)Noodles Wrote:  Attackcoog listed 13 schools not named USM.

We really pissed some people off, didn't we?

Only UCF apparently. They pushed hard for Tulane. I'd love to make a trade.

Hartford has its own international airport and it ranked 53rd among total passenger boardings in 2014 (higher than Tulsa, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Greenville). FYI.

Considering there are only like two flights out of Greenville a day...