weberwildcat
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http://blogs.standard.net/2010/02/a-letter-to-big-sky-presidents/comment-page-1/#comment-7802
A letter to Big Sky presidents
by Jasen Asay - Feb 6th, 2010
Dear presidents of Big Sky Conference universities,
Well, I guess this is only meant for the seven of you who felt it would be a good idea to go against your coaches’ wishes and vote in favor of having men’s and women’s league basketball games this season on as many consecutive nights as possible.
What were you thinking?
I already wrote a blog criticizing the decision, but having to live through it this weekend I am even more against it.
While the seven presidents (none of which was Weber State’s president F. Ann Millner, who voted against consecutive game nights) view the basketball season like a Roman general, sitting on his horse on a hill overlooking the battle but not really being involved in it, others have to deal with their decision.
Like the Weber State men’s basketball team, which boarded a bus Friday night after a game in Missoula, Mont., in order to travel through a snowstorm and over mountain passes to make it to Bozeman for a game the following night. While other vehicles slid off the road and were abandoned in the snow, the bus slowly made it to Bozeman, arriving in the early morning.
WSU play-by-play announcer Carl Arky and I left Missoula a little later and also drove slowly on the icy roads to make it safely to Bozeman. But we saw plenty of cars and semis that weren’t so lucky.
I know there were other factors – travel between Greeley, Colo., and Flagstaff, Ariz., Sunday games on Altitude and Sacramento State being on the “lone wolf schedule” – that eliminated some back-to-back weekends, but was the possibility of bad weather taken into account during the decision?
You know, it snows sometimes in Montana during the first two months of the year.
Forget that it’s unfair because the schedules aren’t the same for the teams. Forget that the coaches are all against them. Forget that the crowds are likely to be less on Friday nights than Thursday nights because of high school games.
Take the student-athlete’s safety into concern.
Had the Wildcats had an extra day in between games (like Idaho State does because the Bengals played in Bozeman on Friday and play in Missoula on Sunday afternoon) the team could have taken its time busing over on a non-game day, even though the weather may have been worse.
What would happen if a team bus was in an accident at night while trying to make it to the next city for a game the following day?
This is just one of the many examples of why the back-to-back schedule smells like week-old trash from a seafood restaurant.
I haven’t had to see what it’s like having games at Eastern Washington and Portland State on back-to-back nights, but I can imagine flying on the day of the game is pretty time consuming as well.
Don’t you care about the level of competition either?
I know this saves some money, and probably gets the student-athletes around four or five more days in the classroom, but is it really worth it?
Get rid of the back-to-backs!
A letter to Big Sky presidents
by Jasen Asay - Feb 6th, 2010
Dear presidents of Big Sky Conference universities,
Well, I guess this is only meant for the seven of you who felt it would be a good idea to go against your coaches’ wishes and vote in favor of having men’s and women’s league basketball games this season on as many consecutive nights as possible.
What were you thinking?
I already wrote a blog criticizing the decision, but having to live through it this weekend I am even more against it.
While the seven presidents (none of which was Weber State’s president F. Ann Millner, who voted against consecutive game nights) view the basketball season like a Roman general, sitting on his horse on a hill overlooking the battle but not really being involved in it, others have to deal with their decision.
Like the Weber State men’s basketball team, which boarded a bus Friday night after a game in Missoula, Mont., in order to travel through a snowstorm and over mountain passes to make it to Bozeman for a game the following night. While other vehicles slid off the road and were abandoned in the snow, the bus slowly made it to Bozeman, arriving in the early morning.
WSU play-by-play announcer Carl Arky and I left Missoula a little later and also drove slowly on the icy roads to make it safely to Bozeman. But we saw plenty of cars and semis that weren’t so lucky.
I know there were other factors – travel between Greeley, Colo., and Flagstaff, Ariz., Sunday games on Altitude and Sacramento State being on the “lone wolf schedule” – that eliminated some back-to-back weekends, but was the possibility of bad weather taken into account during the decision?
You know, it snows sometimes in Montana during the first two months of the year.
Forget that it’s unfair because the schedules aren’t the same for the teams. Forget that the coaches are all against them. Forget that the crowds are likely to be less on Friday nights than Thursday nights because of high school games.
Take the student-athlete’s safety into concern.
Had the Wildcats had an extra day in between games (like Idaho State does because the Bengals played in Bozeman on Friday and play in Missoula on Sunday afternoon) the team could have taken its time busing over on a non-game day, even though the weather may have been worse.
What would happen if a team bus was in an accident at night while trying to make it to the next city for a game the following day?
This is just one of the many examples of why the back-to-back schedule smells like week-old trash from a seafood restaurant.
I haven’t had to see what it’s like having games at Eastern Washington and Portland State on back-to-back nights, but I can imagine flying on the day of the game is pretty time consuming as well.
Don’t you care about the level of competition either?
I know this saves some money, and probably gets the student-athletes around four or five more days in the classroom, but is it really worth it?
Get rid of the back-to-backs!
