IF THERE WERE ever a second when Oregon State baseball coach Mitch Canham would have had motive to second-guess his resolution for the Beavers to play an unbiased schedule within the wake of the Pac-12’s collapse, it might need been within the early hours of March 31.
Oregon State had simply accomplished a three-game collection at Nebraska and was ready out a four-hour delay within the Denver airport. The crew nonetheless had a two-and-a-half-hour flight to go, and it will take not less than one other two hours after that to get on the bus in Portland and drive residence to Corvallis, simply as the remainder of the city can be beginning their day.
It began ordinarily sufficient, however this Sunday shortly devolved right into a comedy of errors.
There was a normal breakfast earlier than the midday recreation, which had a three-hour window to be performed earlier than the crew wanted to go away for the Lincoln airport to catch its flight. Issues began to go off the rails within the backside of the seventh inning. That is when OSU gave up 9 runs earlier than one other within the eighth to lose 16-7, after which it discovered a well-liked native barbecue joint had cancelled the crew’s postgame meal.
The Beavers did not have sufficient time to make different meals preparations — or bathe — earlier than they wanted to be on the airport, so that they took their possibilities at discovering meals on the terminal. There turned out to be just one choice, a sandwich spot, however because the Beavers arrived, the place’s solely two staff obtained right into a loud argument.
“We’re making an attempt to get a sandwich proper earlier than we get on the airplane, as a result of we’ve not eaten they usually simply begin going at one another,” Canham stated. “One man is like, ‘I give up.’ And we are saying, “No, not but, man. How about we get 30 sandwiches actual fast and you then give up?'”
The plea did not work, leaving this more and more hungry faculty baseball crew with no meal for an additional couple hours earlier than the members would have an opportunity to seize meals throughout their layover in Denver. And once they had been delayed, it felt just like the crew was residing an elaborate prank.
“We take a look at one another, we chuckle and alright, what’s subsequent?” Canham stated. “How can we make the most effective of this?”
If there was any comfort for Canham as he tried to get some sleep within the airport that night time, it got here when he discovered a number of of his gamers crossed paths within the terminal with the Cal baseball crew. Their former Pac-12 rival — now enjoying within the ACC — was on its approach again from Louisville, and its flight wasn’t going to go away till 6 a.m.
These are now not simply remoted inconveniences, they’re the brand new regular.
Oregon State’s lengthy trek residence was greater than only a tough journey day, it was a glimpse of the logistical challenges many packages now face. For Oregon State, Cal, UCLA and different West Coast groups, this 12 months of realignment has introduced a continuing grind to stay on the highest ranges of faculty athletics.
WHEN THE DUST settled on the most recent spherical of faculty sports activities realignment, few faculties bore as a lot duty as UCLA. Together with crosstown rival USC, the Bruins had been a most important driver in breaking apart the Pac-12 once they opted to go away for the Huge Ten.
For soccer, the state of affairs was totally different. The journey typically includes shorter journeys than most nonrevenue sports activities, and faculties usually constitution flights for soccer, which limits lots of the complications that include industrial journey. Many of the journeys align with weekend recreation schedules, so there’s much less interference with lecturers, making the entire proposition extra manageable.
However what would it not imply for nonrevenue sports activities reminiscent of girls’s soccer?
“My first response was clearly a little bit of shock,” stated UCLA girls’s soccer coach Margueritte Aozasa, who led the Bruins to the 2022 nationwide title in her first 12 months as coach. “I used to be on a recruiting name when the information dropped, and I used to be like, ‘Oh.’ However on the similar time, I used to be happy as a result of the Huge Ten is well-positioned in the way forward for collegiate sports activities.”
Aozasa and her workers quickly realized that whereas the variety of journeys on UCLA’s 2024 schedule did not change a lot from the Pac-12 days, the cross-country flights added important fatigue.
“The largest adjustment we’ll make going ahead is investing extra in restoration,” Aozasa stated. “Our crew really carried out very well on the highway, nevertheless it was the video games the following week, once we needed to come again after making that longer journey journey, that we observed it.”
To trace that toll, UCLA relied on GPS wearables and readiness surveys, which confirmed increased ranges of fatigue and soreness than traditional. The info helped verify what coaches had anticipated, that there would have to be totally different restoration processes than when many of the video games had been confined to the West Coast.
Some early-season accidents additionally added to the pressure. Gamers logged extra minutes than anticipated, and the cumulative put on of flights, lodges and unfamiliar fields solely added to the problem.
“It wasn’t simply the journey,” Aozasa stated. “We had been very shorthanded early on, in order that stretch of video games — Kentucky, Tennessee, then two back-to-back Huge Ten journeys — it actually examined us.”
The impression was felt most acutely in the course of the Huge Ten convention match, which was already a brand new idea because the Pac-12 did not have a postseason convention match. UCLA gained the match, however doing so meant the Bruins needed to play three video games in six days — together with a snow delay in Minnesota — as a precursor to the NCAA match.
“We undoubtedly felt it,” Aozasa stated. “Enjoying three video games in six days away after which coming again was not simple. It is one thing we, as a workers, have to regulate to.”
UCLA obtained a No. 2 seed within the match, however was eradicated within the second spherical.
Aozasa expects that with time the form of points they handled for the primary time this season will not really feel like points in any respect, they usually’ll simply be a part of life in big-time faculty athletics. The crew will have the ability to be taught from the experiences every season and apply these classes down the highway.
“Final 12 months was in all probability the one time we’ll must plan a nonconference schedule earlier than we had the convention dates,” Aozasa stated. “This 12 months, we’re again on monitor. Now we have our residence and away opponents and the dates set, so we will plan extra thoughtfully.”
One of many most important subjects for concern as realignment dispersed West Coast groups throughout the nation was the potential impression on lecturers. And whereas that continues to be prime of thoughts for a lot of coaches, Aozasa stated the adjustment was simpler than she anticipated.
For a sport like girls’s soccer, the variety of missed lessons did not actually change. Sure, their flights had been longer, however the variety of journey days was related.
“If we had been having this dialog seven or eight years in the past, it will be a special story,” she stated. “However now, with how used to distant studying everyone seems to be, our gamers did not must make any main changes on the tutorial facet.”
There was additionally the good thing about being uncovered to new locations.
“We had gamers who had by no means been to the Midwest,” Aozasa stated. “They obtained to see faculty cities for the primary time, expertise a pumpkin patch that wasn’t in a car parking zone. The ladies liked it.”
For all of the speak of challenges, Aozasa stated she was happy with how her crew tailored.
“Now we have to be adaptable,” Aozasa stated. “Now we have to be advocates for the well being and wellbeing of our gamers, however we additionally must be adaptable. That is the one approach ahead in faculty sports activities at present.”
Aozasa’s optimistic outlook on competing within the Huge Ten wasn’t a stance shared on campus by males’s basketball coach Mick Cronin, who at numerous factors this previous season expressed frustration with UCLA’s new life on the highway.
Following a house win towards Iowa in January, Cronin was requested about what sort of impression the journey to the West Coast might need had on Iowa.
“Put on and tear on them? Is {that a} joke? Please inform me that is a joke,” Cronin stated. “Now we have to return [East] 4 occasions. Oh, the Huge Ten groups get to come back to Los Angeles the place it is 70 levels one time a 12 months. They do not even have to modify lodges. [UCLA and USC] are 12 miles aside, are you kidding me? Please inform me you are kidding me.”
Cronin’s rant went on.
“We have seen the Statue of Liberty twice within the final three weeks whereas we had been touchdown. We additionally noticed the Capitol Constructing,” Cronin stated. “And we have nonetheless obtained to return, after which we have got to return for the Huge Ten match. They do it one time.”
By the point UCLA’s season was over, the Bruins took 12 journeys outdoors of Los Angeles, traversing the nation to the tune of roughly 35,240 miles within the air. After flying roughly 21,000 miles the 12 months earlier than, it was a rise of about 66%.
Nonetheless, UCLA completed tied for fourth within the Huge Ten in the course of the common season and earned a No. 7 seed within the NCAA match. After profitable their first-round recreation towards Utah State 72-46, the Bruins bowed out within the second spherical with a 67-58 loss to second-seeded Tennessee.
With the loss marking the top to a protracted, typically irritating season, Cronin delivered one other memorable spherical of journey critiques within the postgame information convention.
“Proper now guys, it is 12:40 a.m. and our season simply ended,” he stated. “Proper now my largest concern is how unhealthy the seats are on [our Allegiant Air] flight, on that horrible airplane we’ll must fly residence tomorrow.”
Cronin’s unfiltered criticism made it clear he felt like UCLA was at a aggressive drawback with the quantity of journey his crew needed to do throughout the Huge Ten in comparison with the convention’s longtime members.
Whereas it must be simple to grasp his level, and it’s onerous to argue towards it, Cronin is not precisely a sympathetic determine, for a pair causes. The obvious is that UCLA introduced this upon itself. Whereas Cronin may not have been consulted on the choice to go away to the Pac-12 and is by no means chargeable for the transfer, the college was not pressured into this new regular like, for instance, Oregon State was. UCLA decided the elevated media income from being within the Huge Ten was value sacrificing in different methods.
Then, in fact, there may be the success of the ladies’s basketball packages at UCLA and USC, which handled the identical type of journey challenges and nonetheless managed to go a mixed 65-7 in the course of the common season and earned No. 1 seeds, earlier than they had been each eradicated by eventual champion UConn. The journey would possibly make profitable tougher, however after one season it is unimaginable to say with any confidence to what diploma it makes a distinction.
In 2024, the UCLA softball crew performed two video games outdoors the Pacific Time Zone in the course of the common season — each in an early-season invitational match in Florida — earlier than the NCAA match and its eventual journey to the Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence in Oklahoma.
This 12 months, that quantity jumped to 14, together with a six-game highway journey that included video games in Iowa, Washington D.C. and Maryland. However the outcomes had been related. UCLA hosted within the first spherical and took two of three final week in a brilliant regional at South Carolina to return to the Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence. If there was a aggressive drawback that got here from extra time on the highway, it was minimal.
AFTER MOST OF the Pac-12 fled for secure haven within the Huge Ten, Huge 12 and, lastly, the ACC, Oregon State — together with Washington State — misplaced the proverbial recreation of musical chairs.
It left Canham weighing the way forward for Oregon State baseball. Realignment didn’t go away the Beavers with many viable choices to keep up their place as an elite faculty baseball vacation spot.
“I appeared on the prospects and simply did not see something that lined up,” Canham stated. “Numerous the choices had been conferences that usually get one bid into the postseason. And that is not the extent we would like for our program or our gamers. We need to play the most effective.”
Washington State despatched its baseball crew to the Mountain West as an affiliate member, however that wasn’t an interesting vacation spot for the Beavers. So, after searching for out the viability of affiliate membership elsewhere, Oregon State made a daring resolution: it went unbiased. The Beavers are the one unbiased faculty baseball crew this season, they usually’ll be unbiased once more in 2026.
The selection got here with a heavy dose of uncertainty and a good heavier journey burden. And not using a convention to depend on for a bulk of the scheduling, Canham spent hours on the cellphone, calling round to piece collectively a full slate of video games.
“I wanted a chance to attempt to fill out a schedule and see if we might make this work,” he stated. “I used to be going to name and ask for that recreation to fill a whole schedule.”
Whereas Oregon State’s ballpark, Goss Stadium, provided a premier setting, getting different groups to go to — particularly late within the season throughout convention play — was troublesome. Many most well-liked to maintain their bye weeks at residence, leaving Oregon State with little leverage to carry opponents to Corvallis.
“I assumed that everybody would need to come right here and play due to the historical past, the atmosphere, simply the great thing about the ballpark,” Canham stated. “However for 12 months 1, that was not essentially within the playing cards for a lot of faculties.”
The Beavers as an alternative confronted an exhausting schedule of away video games, spending numerous hours in airports, buses and resort rooms. Of their 54 video games this season, solely 19 had been at residence.
It was the type of season that examined every part: sleep schedules, diet, restoration. It wasn’t uncommon for the crew to observe on the highway as late as 9 p.m. on a Thursday after a full day of journey.
Earlier this month, the crew met at its facility to catch a 4 a.m. bus to get to Portland for a flight to Iowa. However the bus by no means confirmed up, leaving coaches to pack gamers and baggage into their very own automobiles.
“I’m going, ‘There isn’t any bus,'” Canham stated. “So I stated, ‘All proper, all people, coaches get your automobiles.’ We loaded up all the blokes and drove them to the airport ourselves.”
But when any program was outfitted for adversity, it was Oregon State. With three nationwide championships in 2006, 2007 and 2018, the Beavers have lengthy been a powerhouse in faculty baseball. Beneath former coach Pat Casey, Oregon State grew to become one of the revered packages within the nation.
That custom has carried on below Canham, a former Oregon State catcher who performed on the 2006 and 2007 title-winning groups. He has seen firsthand what it takes to succeed on the nationwide stage, and he’s doing every part inside his energy to keep up that legacy.
“It is a program that is constructed on toughness and resilience,” he stated. “We have performed in a number of the largest video games in faculty baseball historical past, and we’ll preserve pushing to be in that dialog yearly.”
Regardless of the chaos of this unbiased season, the Beavers refused to view it as a burden.
“None of those are complaints,” Canham stated. “These are all blessings, how we select to take a look at this. As a result of if we’re making an attempt to prep these guys for occurring and enjoying within the skilled ranks, they’ll be doing a variety of that fixed journey on the highway.”
In Cal’s first baseball season within the ACC, coach Mike Neu additionally needed to reimagine his technique to scheduling. The Bears must cross the nation for any convention away video games besides towards Bay Space-rival Stanford, so Neu needed to restrict the journey early on.
“As soon as I discovered every part out, the purpose was, ‘Let’s play extra at residence realizing we’ll journey just a little bit extra, and let’s go away a day earlier,'” he stated.
His focus was on reducing down on journey days, reshuffling midweek video games and making certain his gamers had sufficient time to recuperate and alter to totally different environments. Cal had been scheduled to play in a match in Texas, however Neu backed out of that and changed it with native video games.
Previously, Cal had at all times left on Thursday for highway journeys within the Pac-12, however that modified this 12 months. For journeys again East, the crew would go away on Wednesday. The change got here for a pair causes, however largely stems from an expertise Cal had touring to Pittsburgh in 2023. For that journey, Cal’s direct Thursday flight to Pennsylvania was canceled. The crew ended up having to attach and obtained in very late that night time, with out the possibility to observe and get acclimated.
“That is a type of elements that in all probability made the choice simpler to go away on Wednesday as a result of if that occurs on Wednesday, OK, we’ll be high quality,” Neu stated.
After enjoying largely native video games to start out the season, Neu stated he’ll probably replicate the plan subsequent 12 months, and he’s assured the crew might really deal with one other out-of-town match at first of the season or one other highway journey, presumably in Southern California.
“I do not suppose that will be overwhelming for us,” Neu stated. “I feel this season has in all probability given me the arrogance we do not have to play each recreation at residence within the preseason.”
Enjoying at residence did not find yourself serving as a lot of a bonus, not less than not in essentially the most fundamental technique to consider such issues. The Bears completed the season 12-18 at residence, 10-12 on the highway and limped to a 9-21 report to complete in final place within the ACC. With the No. 16 seed within the ACC match final week, Cal gained a pair of 9 a.m. ET video games in Durham, North Carolina, towards No. 9 Miami and No. 8 Wake Forest earlier than being eradicated by top-seeded Georgia Tech.
THE TRAVEL TOLL was actual, however — not less than for Oregon State — so was the payoff. After ending their unbiased season 41-12-1, the Beavers earned the No. 8 nationwide seed within the NCAA match. Meaning they will host a regional in Corvallis that begins Friday and, in the event that they advance, they might once more play host, however for a brilliant regional.
The query now’s whether or not any of that is really sustainable. Will the cross-country flights, missed meals and sleep-deprived nights slowly erode the aggressive edge these packages have fought so onerous to keep up? Will gamers be worn down by the psychological and bodily toll, or will they discover methods to adapt, season after season?
For now, the realignment development throughout faculty sports activities is for conferences to change into extra nationwide. However with such a drastic shift, it is truthful to wonder if, years from now, a few of these nonrevenue sports activities would possibly in the end development again within the different path. That day will not come quickly, however the jury continues to be out on whether or not this new period of fixed journey is really the best way ahead, or just a part that faculty sports activities will finally outgrow.
