Be careful What you wish for!
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Be careful what you wish for. Colleges traditionally formed sports conference affiliations or independent traditional rivalries with schools which were geographically close to them. Road games could be easily attended by students and alumni. And, after all, what would be the purpose of team sports which could not be seen live by students and alumni? Non-revenue sports retained viability because of accessible and inexpensive travel costs. A few out of conference games and tournaments were traditionally scheduled in more remote destinations to gain national recognition and exposure but the majority of games were played within reasonable travel distances. Away games were frequently played in places where a significant percentage of a schools alumni resided, attended games, and enthusiastically participated in pre or post game gatherings.
That all began to change as television began to broadcast more and more games and as airplane travel became less expensive. However, most college sports leagues have still retained a regional character.
Its possible, as a lasting consequence of the pandemic, that we will begin to witness a return to closer regional rivalries in the future.
The A-10 conference has retained a reasonable amount of regional character, plays its games where most of our alumni live, and is at least somewhat accessible to non-revenue teams (not to mention the band and the Red Scare). However, our rivalries are not as intense or as passionate as those which we traditionally enjoyed in the 50s through the 80s.
And now it seems there is a somewhat sudden support for affiliation with a league with two schools from Texas, two from Florida, and others from Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina and Louisiana. How many of our alumni live in those places? How many of our fans who we are proud to say travel so well will be attending games in those places? How many games will feature our pep band? Cheer leaders? Red Scare?
I dont think so!
That all began to change as television began to broadcast more and more games and as airplane travel became less expensive. However, most college sports leagues have still retained a regional character.
Its possible, as a lasting consequence of the pandemic, that we will begin to witness a return to closer regional rivalries in the future.
The A-10 conference has retained a reasonable amount of regional character, plays its games where most of our alumni live, and is at least somewhat accessible to non-revenue teams (not to mention the band and the Red Scare). However, our rivalries are not as intense or as passionate as those which we traditionally enjoyed in the 50s through the 80s.
And now it seems there is a somewhat sudden support for affiliation with a league with two schools from Texas, two from Florida, and others from Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina and Louisiana. How many of our alumni live in those places? How many of our fans who we are proud to say travel so well will be attending games in those places? How many games will feature our pep band? Cheer leaders? Red Scare?
I dont think so!