UM Canes & USF Bulls Will Lead College Football on the Ground in 2009

The Miami Hurricanes will have the leading ground game in 2009.  The USF Bulls will be right up there with them.

By changing the dynamics of their ground games, and adapting to what they have to work with, these Florida schools will have the rest of the nation taking notice.

And the nation will have to take notice because it looks like the economy has hit everyone hard, including college athletic departments.

The University of Miami has chosen, and a great choice it is, to take the bus to their  October 17th meeting with Central Florida in Orlando and their November 28th meeting with South Florida in Tampa.

In the past, they would fly.  This year they are keeping it on the ground!

The South Florida Bulls are taking the bus to their September 26th meeting with Florida State, in Tallahassee.

Each time these schools take the bus, they are going to save about $50,000.

I don't know about Miami, but state schools, like USF, should try to save the tax payer as much as they can—don't they receive state funding?

Miami to Orlando is about 250 miles and Miami to Tampa is just under 300.

Will these trips take more or less time than a plane?  I don't know.  Will they tire out the teams and coaches more or less?  I don't know. 

I do know that they will save $50,000, and it's pretty clear that other schools, if they haven't already made similar changes to their travel plans, should think about it seriously.

Teams in conferences like the PAC 10 and BIG 12 just can't make the switch.  The distances between the teams are too great.

The ACC, Big East, Big Ten and SEC have so many games reachable by bus, it makes one wonder "why haven't they been doing it already?"

Northwestern, located in Chicago, is closer to eight of their ten opponents than Miami is to Tampa.

Alabama is within a "Miami to Tampa bus ride" to Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.  Tennessee, in Nashville, is just a little further.

I'm sure that traveling by bus is something the Mid American Conference has been doing for a long time—six of their teams are located in the state of Ohio.

Because the financial situation affects everyone, colleges are not immune.  Saving money makes sense and taking a bus, when possible, is the right thing to do.

A transportation issue like this brings to mind Boston College's Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo, who thought it was a great move to pull out of the Big East, five years ago and join the ACC.

Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers are closer to Boston than Miami is to Tampa. But it's not just about football!

I don't know how many men's and women's teams Boston College has, but presently there are six Big East schools within a " Miami to Tampa Bus Ride". The closest ACC school is Maryland.

One has to wonder if the traveling expenses are going to put Boston College in a very tough position.  Unlike many teams in the ACC, they don't really have the option to bus to road games.

Since they broke ties with the Big East, they really can't schedule any FBS team that's relatively close, except Army. 

South Florida is pretty far from the rest of the Big East but they have the luxury of being one of seven FBS schools in Florida.  These schools play each other regularly and USF can bus to all of them.

Louisiana Tech, of the Western Athletic Conference, is another school that has to deal with this issue, but like USF, they can schedule out-of-conference games within their state and region.

Earlier this decade, when schools were changing conferences as fast as east European countries changed names, everyone said "You still have to get on a plane.  What's the difference if it takes an hour, or two hours to get there?"

Well we're finding out now, that it might make a difference.  No one expected the price of fuel to skyrocket and no one expected the economy to go this far south.

So lets take our hats off to the University of Miami Hurricanes, the South Florida Bulls and any other school that has made the change. 

As I said earlier, by changing the dynamics of the ground game, they will have the rest of the nation taking notice.