Leatherneck Nation

I’ve heard that Western will be playing in Madison against the Badgers in late November 

We have a game at Green Bay Dec 9

jtrinaldi wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:39 pm I’ve heard that Western will be playing in Madison against the Badgers in late November 

 

Game confirmed for November 27

Probably not, but any idea if there will be any good non-conference games at Western Hall

I see the conference schedule is posted. All double headers only host Little Rock and only go to Tennessee Tech play every one else home and away 
 

Dumb question but I will ask it anyway.  Since each date is a M/W doubleheader, would you only need one bus to get both teams there or is that asking too much of D1 athletes to share a seat and bathroom.  lol

sealhall74 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:52 pm Dumb question but I will ask it anyway.  Since each date is a M/W doubleheader, would you only need one bus to get both teams there or is that asking too much of D1 athletes to share a seat and bathroom.  lol

 

It seems kinda pointless not to plus extra money saved 

leatherneckcountry wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:57 pm

sealhall74 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:52 pm Dumb question but I will ask it anyway.  Since each date is a M/W doubleheader, would you only need one bus to get both teams there or is that asking too much of D1 athletes to share a seat and bathroom.  lol


 

It seems kinda pointless not to plus extra money saved

 

Hard to say. A "standard" charter bus holds 56 people, but that's with everyone in a seat (28 pairs of seats). There are 22 players and coaches currently listed on the men's team and 19 on the women's team, which adds up to 41, but you also have to consider that they're almost all going to be "above average" height people. A couple of 6'5" to 7' dudes in a pair of seats is going to be pretty hard to make work.
If you left behind some of the freshmen who aren't playing that season and made the graduate assistants sit together, you might be able to fit everyone on one bus. I know they're trying to save money, but that may be a bit too much outside of the shorter trips like Lindenwood and SIUE.

Now that the conference schedule has been announced, I decided to do my travel analysis like I did with volleyball. Here's how travel compares between last year in the Summit and this year in the OVC, assuming with the  Thursday/Saturday games we drive to the first one, then to the second one, then back to Macomb.

Totals:
2022 - 6,264 miles, 93 hours 51 minutes driving time
2023 - 3,812 miles, 61 hours 25 minutes driving time

In 2022, all of our 2-game trips were over 1,071 miles and over 16 hours 23 minutes of driving total.
In 2023, all of our 2-game trips will be under 1,073 miles and under 16 hours 54 minutes of driving total.
(so, our shortest trip in 2022 will be pretty close to the length of our longest trip in 2023)

In 2022 our travel partner (1-game trip) was St. Thomas...823 miles (13 hours) trip there and back.
In 2023 our travel partner is SIUE...291 miles (5 hours 11 minutes) trip there and back.

So, if charter bus costs are based on mileage, then our travel costs should be about 60% of what they were last year for conference games.