"Ask Cal women's coach Charmin Smith about her team's first run of cross-country travel for Atlantic Coast Conference games last year, and she'll shrug off the question about the challenges of doing it. We're in the ACC, we're happy to be in the ACC, she said Tuesday during the league's preseason media days. And we get on a plane and we go."
"Still, the league's expansion to stretch from the Pacific to the Atlantic coastlines last year, along with a similar change in the Big Ten, led to lots of flight hours, airborne study halls and sleep-altering routines as men's and women's teams criss-crossed the country. The losses piled up at a much higher rate than other road games in both leagues, too."
ACC expansion added Cal, Stanford and SMU, stretching the league from the Pacific to the Atlantic and producing frequent cross-country trips. Teams endured long flight hours, airborne study halls and sleep-altering routines while crossing four continental U.S. time zones. Western outposts such as California and Stanford faced particularly acute travel burdens and accumulated more losses on lengthy road trips. The league adjusted scheduling so lengthy trips include two games per outing, typically Wednesday–Saturday for men and Thursday–Sunday for women. ACC women's teams going across all four time zones won just 7–23 (23.3%), far below other road-game results.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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