On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Mike Machnik wrote:
 
> It's important to understand that with the new scheduling format, the
> other CCHA schools will only travel to UAF every other year.  Each
> year, UAF will host 5 of the 10 CCHA teams in 3 game series, and UAF
> will play 3 game series at the other 5 CCHA teams.  As it stands, most
> CCHA teams were traveling to UAF about every other year (at least) as
> it was.  Remember also that the travel costs for schools going to UAF
> are, in many cases, even smaller than playing other teams in their
> area, because UAF pays for 25 round trip plane tickets for each team
> traveling up there.
>
> But most importantly, the scheduling was worked out such that the 5
> teams traveling to UAF will be able to do so over breaks in their
> school's schedule - i.e. Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  In fact, I
> believe it was guaranteed that the players would miss NO class time at
> all in traveling to and from UAF.  Players will miss more class time
> during trips to play other "Lower 48" CCHA schools, since it is not
> unusual to leave on Thursday night for a weekend series on the road,
> i.e. LSSU at UIC.
 
I agree with Mike's assessment that the CCHA cannot be faulted for asking
UAF to become a full member of the association.  Every step was taken to
assure that the current CCHA schools would not be coerced into footing
huge travel bills and having student-athletes miss class time.  However,
I share Matt's original concern from the perspective of the UAF program.
If they are hosting CCHA school's over their breaks, then UAF will most
likely be traveling to the "lower 48" during the school term.  While they
probably do this now, how many of UAF's current road trips occur over
breaks?  Also, does UAF currently give 25 round trip airfare tickets to
visiting teams?  In essence, UAF is paying to travel for almost everyone
of their games.  It brings up the question of "what extremes are
necessary to maintain a program?"
 
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*                                                          *
* Robb Dunn                         University of Michigan *
* Project Administrator                   Sport Facilities *
*                                      Research Laboratory *
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* [log in to unmask]            Cal '93, Michigan '94 and '97 *
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