UConn Travel

[GoldenWarrior11]

A lot has been made about the travel that UConn had while in the American, while moving to the Big East. Going from being the geographic outlier in a conference to being within the heart of the footprint obviously carries tremendous weight in terms of travel and regional fan interest. However, some have pushed back against how much travel UConn will be saving going from the AAC to the Big East, including questioning the ~$2 million annual savings in travel alone. I took some time yesterday to log all of the AAC road trips each of the sports that UConn will be bringing over to the Big East (thus, football is not included, nor is field hockey). Compare those (especially the locations of the AAC Championships) to that of those within the Big East. For many Olympic sports, for which you may have two, maybe three, road trips in conference, you can easily substitute Providence, Seton Hall or St. John's for "bus trips" instead of flying out to the long distance locations they had been traveling to.

Baseball - Houston, UCF, ECU, Tulane (Conference Tournament - Clearwater, FL)
Men's Basketball - USF, Cincinnati, Tulsa, UCF, Temple, Memphis, SMU, Wichita State, ECU (Conference Tournament - Orlando, FL)
Men's Cross Country - AAC Conference Tournament (New Orleans, LA)
Men's Golf - AAC Conference Tournament (Palm Harbor, FL)
Men's Soccer - USF, Cincinnati, Temple, SMU
Men's Swimming and Diving - AAC Championships (Indianapolis, IN)
Men's Tennis - AAC Conference Championships (Orlando, FL)
Men's Track & Field - AAC Conference Championships (Birmingham, AL - FEB; Wichita, KS - MAR)

Women's Basketball - Houston, Tulane, Temple, Cincinnati, UCF, Tulsa, Wichita State, USF
Women's Cross Country - AAC Conference Tournament (New Orleans, LA)
Women's Lacrosse - Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, ECU
Women's Soccer - Memphis, Tulsa, UCF, USF
Softball - UCF, Wichita State, Houston, ECU (AAC Conference Tournament - Houston, TX)
Women's Swimming and Diving - AAC Championships (Indianapolis, IN)
Women's Tennis - Memphis, ECU, AAC Championships (Orlando, FL)
Women's Track & Field - AAC Conference Championships (Birmingham, AL - FEB; Wichita, KS - MAR)
Women's Volleyball - UCF, USF, Temple, Memphis, SMU, ECU, Cincinnati, Houston, AAC Championship (Orlando, FL)

For reference, below are the sites of the Big East Championships:
Cross Country - Indianapolis, IN
Women's Soccer - Higher Seed
Men's Soccer - Higher Seed
Women's Volleyball - Omaha, NE (Creighton)
Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving - East Meadow, NY
Women's Basketball* - Chicago, IL
Men's Basketball - New York City, NY
Men's Golf - Okatie, SC
Men's/Women's Tennis - Cayce, SC
Women's Lacrosse - Milwaukee, WI
Men's/Women's Track and Field - New York, NY
Softball - Chicago, IL
Baseball - Mason, OH
*The Women's Tournament will almost be guaranteed to move to UConn once they join

Additionally, the AAC Conference HQ will be relocating shortly to Dallas, where as the Big East HQ is in New York City.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Distance from UConn (Storrs) to:
Providence - 50 mi
South Orange (Seton Hall) - 120 mi
New York City (St. John's) - 141 mi
Philadelphia (Villanova/Temple) - 234 mi
Washington D.C. (Georgetown) - 366 mi
Greenville (ECU) - 648 mi
Cincinnati (Xavier/Cincinnati) - 795 mi
Indianapolis (Butler) - 861 mi
Chicago (DePaul) - 916 mi
Milwaukee (Marquette) 1,018 mi
Orlando (UCF) - 1,220 mi
Memphis - 1,241 mi
Tampa Bay (USF) - 1,275 mi
Omaha (Creighton) - 1,369 mi
New Orleans (Tulane) - 1,457 mi
Tulsa - 1,497 mi
Wichita - 1,539 mi
Dallas (SMU) - 1,697 mi
Houston - 1,776 mi

Flight Time from UConn (Storrs) to:
New York City (St. John's) - 35 Mins
Philadelphia (Villanova/Temple) - 47 Mins
Washington D.C. (Georgetown) - 1 Hour, 7 Mins
Greenville (ECU) - 1 Hour, 29 Mins
Cincinnati (Xavier/Cincinnati) - 1 Hour, 40 Mins
Indianapolis (Butler) - 1 Hour, 56 Mins
Chicago (DePaul) - 2 Hours
Milwaukee (Marquette) - 2 Hours, 4 Mins
Orlando (UCF) - 2 Hours, 16 Mins
Tampa Bay (USF) - 2 Hours, 25 Mins
Memphis - 2 Hours, 38 Mins
Omaha (Creighton) - 2 Hours, 54 Mins
Dallas (SMU) - 3 Hours
New Orleans (Tulane) - 3 Hours, 4 Mins
Tulsa - 3 Hours, 7 Mins
Wichita - 3 Hours, 11 Mins
Houston - 3 Hours, 31 Mins

Associate Members:

Big East
Hamden (Quinnipac) - 57 mi
Norfolk (Old Dominion) - 503 mi
Lynchburg (Liberty) - 545 mi
Denver - 1,904 mi

AAC
Annapolis (Navy)+ - 350 mi
Nashville (Vanderbilt)* - 1,030 mi
Gainesville (Florida)* - 1,147 mi
*Women's Lacrosse
+Football

UConn has been playing Quinnipac, Old Dominion and Liberty already as Big East Field Hockey members; thus, their distance/travel is negligible. However, in Field Hockey, they are now eliminating a guaranteed road trip to one of Vanderbilt/Gainesville for a road trip every year, and adding a trip to Denver every other year (in women's lacrosse only). UConn does not sponsor men's lacrosse.

[Husky_U]

Don't you be letting numbers and facts get in the way of the Aresco Athletic Conference's narrative.

[Savannah Jay]

For kicks and grins, here is a sample of the cost to charter flights. The article is almost a year old, but the info should still be relevant.

https://www.aircharterserviceusa.com/about-us/news-features/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charter-a-private-jet

For MBB and WBB, the 19+ passenger rate of $20,000 per hour adds up quickly, particularly when UCONN's soon-to-be former conference had 5 schools located farther from Storrs than Omaha.

Saving $2M a year on travel seems reasonable when you start adding up the cost of charter flights. I assume the lesser marquee sports at UCONN fly commercial but, even so, a short flight to a closer destination has to be cheaper than a flight to Wichita or Tulsa. Again, multiply that by the number of tickets bought and UCONN is going to save a truckload on travel.

[SamElliott]

Don't you be letting numbers and facts get in the way of the Aresco Athletic Conference's narrative.

Bingo