I hope everyone realizes that every football team flies a charter (i.e. non-stop flights...as most schools are located near a suitable airstrip...even those with very little commercial traffic).

While many schools charter flights for their basketball teams too...most Olympic sports teams fly commercial...and sometimes getting into/out of small towns/small airports (where one always has to have a connecting flight) is a pain in the butt....as those teams face the longest travel times.

(05-13-2011 10:53 AM)HtownOrange Wrote:  

(05-13-2011 10:50 AM)bitcruncher Wrote:  To get to Morgantown, you either fly into Pittsburgh, and take about a one hour bus ride south, or fly into Clarksburg, and take a 35 minute bus ride north. Commercial air travel is to Pittsburgh. Some charters can land at Clarksburg, depending on how long a runway the plane requires. West Virginia's terrain isn't exactly compatible with large airports, and Morgantown's airport doesn't allow for large enough planes for teams to fly into that airport. Clarksburg's does - barely...

We're just glad you got the football field and basketball court on level ground. WV is beautiful country, but a pain in the neck when you need level territory for something. Could this be the real reason WV doesn't field a Lacrosse team, no more level ground for a field?

There used to be plenty of room on the Mileground (named so because it was exactly one mile of naturally occuring flat ground). I imagine that's fairly developed by now. I haven't been to Morgantown in a few years. Since I quit driving, I haven't been much of anywhere, to tell the truth...

But if WVU consolidates a few things here and there, room can be found on the Evansdale campus...

(05-13-2011 11:56 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  I hope everyone realizes that every football team flies a charter .

most Olympic sports teams fly commercial...and sometimes getting into/out of small towns/small airports is a pain in the butt...

Indeed. That was why I pointed out the Big Ten. They often will have longer travel times for those sports (even the charter flight ones) than we do, because all of our teams are located in cities with major airports except for West Virginia and Notre Dame. And a team like TCU, whcih has one of the busiest airports in the country, is probably easier to travel to than Syracuse, Louisville, Marqquette, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Providence, and UConn, teams located near big airports, but not "major" airports, whereas you can get a non-stop to DFW from just about every airport in the country.

I don't see any reason not to just plug us in. Sure the away games are the four furthest ones, but they are all flights anyway. Any messing with the home away schedules means teams having to play back to back years home or away. Not a big deal either, but if it isn't really necessary, why mess it up.

(05-13-2011 02:53 PM)Frog in the Kitchen Sink Wrote:  I don't see any reason not to just plug us in. Sure the away games are the four furthest ones, but they are all flights anyway. Any messing with the home away schedules means teams having to play back to back years home or away. Not a big deal either, but if it isn't really necessary, why mess it up.

I agree. :iagree: Why mess with it unless UCF is invited too. Even then you would just plug TCU into the schools as home games for the schools that only have 3 conference home games. With UCF you give the home conference games to the schools that have USF away and the away games to UCF for the schools that have USF at home if the BE goes to 10 FB teams and a nine game FB conference schedule in June.

(05-15-2011 05:00 PM)panite Wrote:  

(05-13-2011 02:53 PM)Frog in the Kitchen Sink Wrote:  I don't see any reason not to just plug us in. Sure the away games are the four furthest ones, but they are all flights anyway. Any messing with the home away schedules means teams having to play back to back years home or away. Not a big deal either, but if it isn't really necessary, why mess it up.

I agree. :iagree: Why mess with it unless UCF is invited too. Even then you would just plug TCU into the schools as home games for the schools that only have 3 conference home games. With UCF you give the home conference games to the schools that have USF away and the away games to UCF for the schools that have USF at home if the BE goes to 10 FB teams and a nine game FB conference schedule in June.

So then we agree? UCF it is? We'll, I'll go ahead and phone Tribble and Hitt so we can start taking down the CUSA banners and get our schedule ready

(05-16-2011 03:34 PM)UCF08 Wrote:  

(05-15-2011 05:00 PM)panite Wrote:  

(05-13-2011 02:53 PM)Frog in the Kitchen Sink Wrote:  I don't see any reason not to just plug us in. Sure the away games are the four furthest ones, but they are all flights anyway. Any messing with the home away schedules means teams having to play back to back years home or away. Not a big deal either, but if it isn't really necessary, why mess it up.

I agree. :iagree: Why mess with it unless UCF is invited too. Even then you would just plug TCU into the schools as home games for the schools that only have 3 conference home games. With UCF you give the home conference games to the schools that have USF away and the away games to UCF for the schools that have USF at home if the BE goes to 10 FB teams and a nine game FB conference schedule in June.

So then we agree? UCF it is? We'll, I'll go ahead and phone Tribble and Hitt so we can start taking down the CUSA banners and get our schedule ready

Go right ahead. You will probably have your invitation right after the meeting in Florida next week or by June 30th at the latest.

From UC's standpoint I'd actually prefer a shakeup. I believe UC's schedule would look something like UofL, UConn, WVU and TCU on one end with USF, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse on the other end. No offense to any of those latter schools but that's not a balanced home/away schedule. At least, not at the moment.

For the most part, you cannot balance on the field, as just about every team in the BE has been up and down since 2005, save for WVU. The best you can do is balance for geography.

(05-17-2011 09:09 AM)CD11 Wrote:  From UC's standpoint I'd actually prefer a shakeup. I believe UC's schedule would look something like UofL, UConn, WVU and TCU on one end with USF, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse on the other end. No offense to any of those latter schools but that's not a balanced home/away schedule. At least, not at the moment.

On field results vary from year to year and while, looking at it now, UC's 2012 away schedule looks daunting, keep in mind that those same 4 schools return to Nippert the following year.