Thursday, December 8, 2011

Strange Geography

The Big East Conference announced this week that it is expanding. I’m fine with the league wanting to try to survive in this weird conference realignment business.

For my international readers, the Big East is largely an East Coast conference centered in highly populated areas. The league is best known for its basketball members such as UCONN, Syracuse and Georgetown.

What the conference isn’t known until now is its far reaching national scope. Believe it or not, San Diego State is one of the new members. San Diego State is about as far west in the United States as you can travel. It’s on the West Coast. My geography tells me the West Coast is long way from the East Coast. Folks, you must jump three time zones to get from Point A to Point B.

I find it hard to understand how San Diego State thinks this will benefit its school. Think about the travel costs. Think about the travel time. Think about the additional class time the student athletes will miss.

San Diego State isn’t going to the Big East of old. It’s not a glamour league anymore. It’s been stripped and it’s like I said earlier in survival mode. But the Mountain West (where San Diego State’s membership resides) is shaky too and I guess the West Coast folks believe regardless of the distance, the Big East provides more stability.

I just hope San Diego State has a monster map because it will need one.

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