If Cal winds up in the Mountain West, its recruiting for women's basketball should be better than its competition. But what about the ACC?

At first glance, it seems like it would be a huge problem to recruit Cali girls when so many games would be played on the East Coast. I think that is a problem, but maybe not as big as it appears. The main reason is that the Pac was so spread out that you had to fly to see any away games, pretty much no matter where you lived. (Or if a girls' parents lived in L.A., they had to fly or suffer on I-5.)

And presumably preseason games would be mainly on the West Coast and even locally to save money and athletes' time.

But yes, West Coast recruiting would be somewhat more difficult.

On the other hand, recruiting from the East Coast might be easier than we think. Family and friends of East Coast players would still get to see their recruits play, and maybe see several games in driving distance of one another. And there are a lot of East Coast athletes who might be interested in spending some time in California.

The biggest difficulty, though, would be East Coast club connections, which really don't exist right now. It would take a year or two -- and some success -- to get those going, but it's not insurmountable.

And success should be easier to come by, setting aside the jet lag. Only five ACC teams made the tournament last year, and two were 11 seeds. The other three were at four and five. In short, not nearly as brutally competitive as the Pac.

Hard to say, of course, whether the ACC will happen, but it doesn't appear to be a disaster for women's basketball, and the home court advantage, even with the usual lack of student support, should be real.

I am still hoping that we can join the ACC in football only. The increased travel is going to be brutal, and we already lost $3.89 million in women's basketball in 2022, with only $100,000 in ticket sales. We will need all of the monies we can generate to improve our football program, which will have to continue to support everything else in a changing media environment. A new women's basketball alliance on the West Coast will be the best way to go.

It will be football and both basketballs ... at the least. I guess there's talk of splitting off the Olympic sports, which makes too much sense.

Still not a done deal, though.

I can't imagine many recruits would want to make all those trips across the country- time consuming, stressful, taking time away from both practice and study. I think joining the Mountain West would be much better.

polarbear said:

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I can't imagine many recruits would want to make all those trips across the country- time consuming, stressful, taking time away from both practice and study. I think joining the Mountain West would be much better.

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If Cal, Stanford and SMU join, that is 18 teams. If we play everyone once, Stanford twice, that is 8 games outside the Ba Area. 4 weekends. Could be done in two, 10 day trips with the student athletes staying and studying remotely from the UCDC campus.

calumnus said:

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polarbear said:

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I can't imagine many recruits would want to make all those trips across the country- time consuming, stressful, taking time away from both practice and study. I think joining the Mountain West would be much better.

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If Cal, Stanford and SMU join, that is 18 teams. If we play everyone once, Stanford twice, that is 8 games outside the Ba Area. 4 weekends. Could be done in two, 10 day trips with the student athletes staying and studying remotely from the UCDC campus.

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Apparently they get to share charters back east with Tara & company to cut costs.

update re: sports teams cutting, conference affiliations & co chartering planes with stanford
https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/110786/0

polarbear said:

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I can't imagine many recruits would want to make all those trips across the country- time consuming, stressful, taking time away from both practice and study. I think joining the Mountain West would be much better.

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If Furd and Cal women join the ACC they have a chance to be one of the best conferences for women's hoops, or at least be in that discussion in most years; that's going to be an attractive recruiting piece.
They aren't going to elevate the Mountain West in the same way, at least not in the short run.

mbBear said:

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polarbear said:

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I can't imagine many recruits would want to make all those trips across the country- time consuming, stressful, taking time away from both practice and study. I think joining the Mountain West would be much better.

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If Furd and Cal women join the ACC they have a chance to be one of the best conferences for women's hoops, or at least be in that discussion in most years; that's going to be an attractive recruiting piece.
They aren't going to elevate the Mountain West in the same way, at least not in the short run.

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Football is relatively easy. However, there will need to be accommodations made for the basketball teams with distance learning, weekend only games, extended trips with residence in the DC campus location…

Cal Athletics already seems to know how to handle these long distance trips.

The men's soccer team is in Greensboro NC for a match tonight against #10 UNC Greensboro.
On Sunday, they are in Winston-Salem NC to take on #18 Wake Forest.

Last week, the women's soccer team was in Knoxville on Thursday and Chapel Hill on Sunday.

Though the homecourt advantage will be real -- my understanding is that jet lag is worse east to west than it is west to east -- but Cal is still looking at multiple weekend trips involving long flights. Of course, they had to fly everywhere in the Pac so that's no different, but the length of the flight and the time change could have an impact.

In the bigger picture, how does the recruiting mindset change? Does Cal invest heavily in building connections on the East Coast, or focus on finding West Coast players who like the idea of playing on the East Coast a lot?

And also if the ACC is just a whistle stop on the train to the B1G, it may not be necessary to invest heavily in the Southeast.

Could still happen:
https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/cal-stanford-acc-football-reports-18328806.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-Editors-Picks

ClayK said:

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Though the homecourt advantage will be real -- my understanding is that jet lag is worse east to west than it is west to east -- but Cal is still looking at multiple weekend trips involving long flights. Of course, they had to fly everywhere in the Pac so that's no different, but the length of the flight and the time change could have an impact.

In the bigger picture, how does the recruiting mindset change? Does Cal invest heavily in building connections on the East Coast, or focus on finding West Coast players who like the idea of playing on the East Coast a lot?

And also if the ACC is just a whistle stop on the train to the B1G, it may not be necessary to invest heavily in the Southeast.

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I think the jet lag thing is more of a factor for people working 9 to 5 jobs, and thus normal hours. I don't think a college student falls into that....the "east to west," "west to east" thing is a just depends deal in my experience. The number one thing, and this matters most for football, is to not be part of a Noon et. start; basketball is unlikely to have a start time that is going to be a negative.
The "length of flight" is so much less of a deal if you get to fly charter....my hope is that they pair the men and women's teams as travel partners, and they can do the long flights together on a charter.

What will start times for basketball be?

7pm PST is 10pm EST (a good time for a week day home game)

7pm EST is 4pm PST, not a great time to watch an away game on a week day in California

mbBear said:

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ClayK said:

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Though the homecourt advantage will be real -- my understanding is that jet lag is worse east to west than it is west to east -- but Cal is still looking at multiple weekend trips involving long flights. Of course, they had to fly everywhere in the Pac so that's no different, but the length of the flight and the time change could have an impact.

In the bigger picture, how does the recruiting mindset change? Does Cal invest heavily in building connections on the East Coast, or focus on finding West Coast players who like the idea of playing on the East Coast a lot?

And also if the ACC is just a whistle stop on the train to the B1G, it may not be necessary to invest heavily in the Southeast.

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I think the jet lag thing is more of a factor for people working 9 to 5 jobs, and thus normal hours. I don't think a college student falls into that....the "east to west," "west to east" thing is a just depends deal in my experience. The number one thing, and this matters most for football, is to not be part of a Noon et. start; basketball is unlikely to have a start time that is going to be a negative.
The "length of flight" is so much less of a deal if you get to fly charter....my hope is that they pair the men and women's teams as travel partners, and they can do the long flights together on a charter.

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Local NPR/KQED station (88.5FM) was discussing all this about half an hour ago. Nice to hear, but no more conclusive than our opinions.

HoopDreams said:

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What will start times for basketball be?

7pm PST is 10pm EST (a good time for a week day home game)

7pm EST is 4pm PST, not a great time to watch an away game on a week day in California

mbBear said:

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ClayK said:

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Though the homecourt advantage will be real -- my understanding is that jet lag is worse east to west than it is west to east -- but Cal is still looking at multiple weekend trips involving long flights. Of course, they had to fly everywhere in the Pac so that's no different, but the length of the flight and the time change could have an impact.

In the bigger picture, how does the recruiting mindset change? Does Cal invest heavily in building connections on the East Coast, or focus on finding West Coast players who like the idea of playing on the East Coast a lot?

And also if the ACC is just a whistle stop on the train to the B1G, it may not be necessary to invest heavily in the Southeast.

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I think the jet lag thing is more of a factor for people working 9 to 5 jobs, and thus normal hours. I don't think a college student falls into that....the "east to west," "west to east" thing is a just depends deal in my experience. The number one thing, and this matters most for football, is to not be part of a Noon et. start; basketball is unlikely to have a start time that is going to be a negative.
The "length of flight" is so much less of a deal if you get to fly charter....my hope is that they pair the men and women's teams as travel partners, and they can do the long flights together on a charter.

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Well, I guess there is still the anticipation that there will be at least one game on the weekend for the weeks they are away.
ACC has plenty of precedent of starting games at 9p et but right, there will be some crappy west Coast start times, just as there are in MLB and NBA.

ClayK said:

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It will be football and both basketballs ... at the least. I guess there's talk of splitting off the Olympic sports, which makes too much sense.

Still not a done deal, though.

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ACC conference rules would require women's basketball and one of women's soccer or volleyball.

wifeisafurd said:

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ClayK said:

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It will be football and both basketballs ... at the least. I guess there's talk of splitting off the Olympic sports, which makes too much sense.

Still not a done deal, though.

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ACC conference rules would require women's basketball and one of women's soccer or volleyball.

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I would think soccer so we could upset the NC soccer coach more!! volleyball not very successful these past seasons.

ClayK said:

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...
And also if the ACC is just a whistle stop on the train to the B1G, it may not be necessary to invest heavily in the Southeast.

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From 2024 through 2036 is a pretty long layover, especially compared to my expected lifespan. I have no complaints since I think it's the best fit of all the possibilities I'm aware of.

Great for field hockey and women's lax.