For volleyball and womens basketball (and perhaps other sports, I don't know), the MVC utilizes pairs of "travel partners". For instance, in volleyball, team A would play at UNI on Friday night while team B plays at Drake, and then on Saturday night, team B would play at UNI with team A at Drake. And I believe WBB did something similar, with games on Friday and Sunday.
For VB, the travel pairings (since Loyola joined) have been [distances are approximate]:
UNI/Drake (123 miles between)
Loyola/Bradley (172 miles)
Illinois State/Indiana State (142 miles)
SIU/Evansville (103 miles)
Missouri State/Wichita State (249 miles)
For WBB, it was the same UNI/Drake, SIU/UE, and MSU/WSU, but switching the others:
Bradley/Illinois State (41 miles)
Loyola/Indiana State (184 miles)
I'm curious what the conference will do now with Wichita State leaving and Valparaiso joining. Valpo is close to a number of schools, but the problem becomes that no one is very close to Missouri State.
Here is my guesses for the new travel partners:
UNI/Drake (123 miles)
Loyola/Valpo (60 miles)
Bradley/Illinois State (41 miles)
Evansville/Indiana State (111 miles)
SIU/Missouri State (310 miles)
That's a whopping 5 hr bus ride between SIU and MSU, but the Salukis are the closest conference-mate to the Bears now (next closest being Drake at 360 miles). Though this setup would reduce the distance for most of the other pairs down to under 2 hr bus trips (well, maybe slightly more than 2 hrs from UNI to Drake, but still not bad). And I know UNI vb usually flew for the MSU/WSU road trip instead of bussing, which I'd bet would continue for the Missouri State weekend, regardless of who they are paired with.
For VB, the travel pairings (since Loyola joined) have been [distances are approximate]:
UNI/Drake (123 miles between)
Loyola/Bradley (172 miles)
Illinois State/Indiana State (142 miles)
SIU/Evansville (103 miles)
Missouri State/Wichita State (249 miles)
For WBB, it was the same UNI/Drake, SIU/UE, and MSU/WSU, but switching the others:
Bradley/Illinois State (41 miles)
Loyola/Indiana State (184 miles)
I'm curious what the conference will do now with Wichita State leaving and Valparaiso joining. Valpo is close to a number of schools, but the problem becomes that no one is very close to Missouri State.
Here is my guesses for the new travel partners:
UNI/Drake (123 miles)
Loyola/Valpo (60 miles)
Bradley/Illinois State (41 miles)
Evansville/Indiana State (111 miles)
SIU/Missouri State (310 miles)
That's a whopping 5 hr bus ride between SIU and MSU, but the Salukis are the closest conference-mate to the Bears now (next closest being Drake at 360 miles). Though this setup would reduce the distance for most of the other pairs down to under 2 hr bus trips (well, maybe slightly more than 2 hrs from UNI to Drake, but still not bad). And I know UNI vb usually flew for the MSU/WSU road trip instead of bussing, which I'd bet would continue for the Missouri State weekend, regardless of who they are paired with.
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