Friday, October 4, 2013

Another Conference Realignment Downside

I started this blog after the dust settled on the latest round of conference realignment. While there are still moves to be completed, for example Western Kentucky to Conference USA, those were announced a while ago and nothing major looks to be on the Horizon, at least until Division IV and player stipends works itself out.

UTA is entering the second year in a row of being in a new conference. I could find many of the common complaints about the loss of rivalry, tradition, search for greener pastures and, in the case of the Mavericks, loss of geographic compactness that many others have made.

It is that second point that I write about now. After playing in the WAC, which occupied (and still does) three time zones, we now play in the Sun Belt, where four teams play in an opposite time zone. There was a point this year when UTA played in the Black and Gold Challenge in Boone, North Carolina that UTAMAVS.com had the wrong time.

Today, the ladies play at Georgia State. I was double checking UTA's site with the Sun Belt. UTAMAVS.com said six. The SBC's site said 5 Eastern, which would be four here. The UTA media guide said six and the Panthers site said six Eastern, which is five o'clock local.

This happened last year with six teams in two different time zones. However, this never happened in the Southland, where all teams were (and still are) in the Central Time Zone.

I am not saying we should go back. I like where we are and most of the teams were have joined. But it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

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