How long? A one-way flight involving Oregon and Rutgers in the new Big Ten is 2,900 miles and slightly less for schools like Southern Cal, UCLA or Washington. That’s more than five hours on a plane.
“Just speaking for myself, I don’t know. It’s a bad deal, really,” said Keenan, 74. “We’re on the East Coast and everybody else is in the Midwest or on the West Coast. Probably the majority of the fans won’t be able to do that. It puts a burden on them if they want to see the games in person.” “It’s going to be terrible,” said Tom Aiello, a Valdosta State history professor and author of several sports books, including one on the Bayou Classic between Grambling State and Southern. “College football was built on rivalry games, and regional rivalries at that. And those regional rivalries were largely built on some kind of personal issue. And all that goes away in these kind of manufactured conferences that they’re creating.
“There is a limit in terms of the distance that people can travel for these,” Tyler said. ”But when they’re traveling for games, it’s typically about the experience when they’re traveling those big distances. It’s about the experience and the camaraderie and the other people more than the game itself.”
“Like if you’re a big Indiana Hoosiers fan, you might say, oh, this would be great to go and see a game at Oregon. What a great opportunity,” Cobbs said. “But, you know, the third, fourth time that they play in Oregon, are those fans still going to want to make that trip if they’ve already made it?”