Former Pac-12 teams facing AWFUL new travel

Mick Cronin’s UCLA men’s basketball team has spent the first two months of the 2024-25 season racking up frequent-flyer miles, with trips to New York, Nebraska and Maryland already completed.

When it comes to other teams’ potential travel woes, Cronin isn’t exactly sympathetic.

In a news conference Friday night following the Bruins’ 94-70 thumping of Iowa, Cronin was asked if he has noticed any “wear and tear” that Big Ten teams making the trip west to face UCLA and USC have shown and whether it’s comparable to what the Bruins have endured going east so frequently.

In its first season in the Big Ten, UCLA has already had road games against Nebraska (about 1,500 miles from Los Angeles), Maryland (2,640 miles) and Rutgers (2,750 miles), along with a trip to New York for a non-conference, neutral-site game against North Carolina.

The Bruins still have road games remaining against Indiana, Illinois, Purdue and Northwestern, as well as the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

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[BoyNamedSue]

I say this a person who grew up on the west coast. Serves them right. Nobody forced them to leave our conference. PAC-12 was created for a reason.

[stevehart]

The PAC 12 was a great conference. None of them should have left.

[justkeepingitreal]

No one forced UCLA to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 10. Nobody. You reap what you sow. Everybody knew this was going to be a problem so now that it is, why are ya'll complaining?

[MattZ]

Small correction, the ACC should be called the All Coasts Conference.

[jerrywille]

Great disadvantage to west coast schools. Hope they enjoy the money

[MrMuppetLover]

Brodie is the voice of the West Coast sports both professional and college.

[Jimorian]

Football conferences really do need to be a separate entity from the conferences for every other sport for this to work.

[icetruckthrilla]

I wish they would have created football-only conferences (kind of like how there are hockey-only conferences) but deals were signed. Not much can be done at this point.

[audrisampson]

What is really bad as well is that most of us fans of the Big10 really didn't want those schools to begin with.

[marcsamuelson]

The administrators and Boards of Trustees knew travel was going to be an issue, but they absolutely did not care. Money talks...

[allenwand]

Good I'm glad they're unhappy. Destroyed what I loved, Beavs in The Desert, Oregon in The Palouse, UCLA at Zona, etc.

[chrisbunka]

As someone who grew up in Big Ten country, lived in So Cal, and now resides in Big Ten country again, I was saddened at the demise of the traditional PAC 12 and addition of the four schools to the Big Ten. All the extra traveling across country has impacted player performance.

[gregvogel]

I was on the light rail this fall and the UW women’s soccer team was sitting next to my family and I asked them about this, and the players really didn’t like being in the big 10. Most of the players come from the West Coast and they miss seeing friends at the schools they traveled to, and the travel was brutal. It was so much demoralizing though since there really isn’t anything they look forward to on these road trips now.

[robertgoulet]

20 years ago it was a huge deal when BC became the only Northern team in the ACC. Now Stanford, Cal, and SMU are also in that conference.

[fansince]

Brodie. It's so IRONIC that of all the former Pac 12 school coaches' that could come out complaining, it's Nick Cronin of UCLA. UCLA and USC were the two schools that spearheaded the break up of the Pac 12. And now it's a UCLA coach that's complaining. Too funny.

[iplayfhorn]

Cal and Stanford in the ACC makes about as much sense as the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds being in the NL West (or the Nashville Sounds being in the PCL).

[billlong]

The Pac12 collapsed from within beginning with Larry Scott. The aftermath is pure greed. But, maybe someone will come to their senses and see the travel make the cuttent situation unsustainable. I live in Tucson, the AZ basketball team is on a five ( possibly six day depending on snow/ice) road trip. Partly due to Big12 scheduling Sat-Tues games). That's not sustainable, especially for the non-revenue sports.

[bcokyhs]

Any kind of traveling sucks! I did it for my job and traveled for almost 30 years (now retired), but I absolutely detested it.

[joeschleyhahn]

The east coast teams have to travel west...everyone knew this would be the case so complaining about it now means nothing.

[williamlloyd]

Great putting this point out there that was hiding in plain sight