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CHARLOTTE, NC — Earlier this month on the CBS program “Face The Nation,” NCAA President Charlie Baker floated an idea that, at first glance, most fans might get on board with.

“Most of the conversation I’ve heard among schools, at least at the Division I level, is whether they should try and figure out some way to create a more regional approach to sports other than football,” Baker said. “… And I think the conversation people have started to have is whether or not there’s a way to think a little differently about how to schedule the football stuff than the way you schedule some of the other sports. Football’s once a week, right? And it’s usually over a weekend.

“A lot of these other sports, you’re playing midweek, you’re playing the weekends, and those sports, the travel question becomes a much bigger challenge and a bigger issue than it is for just football.”

Regional scheduling, where neighbor plays neighbor, where local traditions still matter.

It’s something that doesn’t sound all that farfetched and a concept that many college sports fans — especially ones who care about basketball and hold onto geographic rivalries so dearly — could get behind.

But the toothpaste might be out of the tube here

In the view of one Power 4 commissioner, the ACC’s Jim Phillips, such an approach to scheduling in non-football sports is easier said than done.

“In principle, it sounds great,” Phillips told USA TODAY Sports. “I think the difficulty is — how do you execute it with conferences and leagues that have gotten so big, not only in number, but from a geography standpoint? But I don’t disagree with Charlie and what he’s stating there. How do you make that work?”

There was a time, two decades ago, where the autonomy conferences were much more confined to a geographic footprint. The Pac-12 was thriving on the west coast, the ACC held down the east coast, the Big Ten was saddled in the midwest, the SEC owned the south and the Big 12 was situated across six states in the country’s middle, spanning from Texas to Iowa.

But then the old Big East’s football league began to splinter. The Big Ten poached Nebraska and Maryland. Missouri and Texas A&M fled to the SEC, and Texas and Oklahoma followed a decade later. The departures of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington led to the implosion of the old Pac-12, with schools finding refuge in the ACC and Big 12.

So now, with the SEC as the only outlier, three of the four Power 4 leagues stretch from coast-to-coast. The Big Ten has members in Piscataway, New Jersey, and Eugene, Oregon. The Big 12 spans from Orlando, Florida, north to Morgantown, West Virginia, and west to Salt Lake City. The ACC goes all the way south to Miami, north to Syracuse, New York, then all the way to California’s Bay Area with new members Stanford and Cal.

These setups have led to some real headaches when it comes to travel, especially in non-football sports that play multiple games per week and, at times, on weeknights. One example surfaced in March when a softball game between Oregon and Northwestern ended due to a “drop dead” time, enforced because of the Ducks’ lengthy travel. Oregon was leading 7-3, but when the game was called Northwestern had the bases loaded with the tying run up to bat.

Baker’s idea for regional scheduling in non-football sports isn’t all that novel. Four years ago, former Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner was beating a similar drum.

“To me, football is football. And they need to just go do what’s best for football,” Fortner said at the 2022 ACC Tip-Off. “Football shouldn’t be making decisions on if the swim team flies across the country — that shouldn’t be part of their decision.

“Let’s get selfish here — how are we going to take care of men’s and women’s basketball? Do we have to have all these conferences? Does that have to be the way? I don’t know. I don’t have the answer. I’m just saying, it just seems like at some point in time, the discussion has to be — football has to take care of football. Let them do that. And then, now, let’s figure out how the rest of this works. And we don’t have to fly teams from coast to coast to compete in a conference. That makes no sense to me.”

As the Power 4 conferences have bloated in size, some rivalries have been sacrificed. For example, NC State and North Carolina no longer play twice-a-year in men’s and women’s basketball. To rectify that on the men’s side this season, the Tar Heels and Wolfpack will meet in a non-conference game in Greensboro.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ACC’s Jim Phillips says regional scheduling for non-football sports is easier said than done

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

CHARLOTTE, NC — Earlier this month on the CBS program “Face The Nation,” NCAA President Charlie Baker floated an idea that, at first glance, most fans might get on board with.

“Most of the conversation I’ve heard among schools, at least at the Division I level, is whether they should try and figure out some way to create a more regional approach to sports other than football,” Baker said. “… And I think the conversation people have started to have is whether or not there’s a way to think a little differently about how to schedule the football stuff than the way you schedule some of the other sports. Football’s once a week, right? And it’s usually over a weekend.

“A lot of these other sports, you’re playing midweek, you’re playing the weekends, and those sports, the travel question becomes a much bigger challenge and a bigger issue than it is for just football.”

Regional scheduling, where neighbor plays neighbor, where local traditions still matter.

It’s something that doesn’t sound all that farfetched and a concept that many college sports fans — especially ones who care about basketball and hold onto geographic rivalries so dearly — could get behind.

But the toothpaste might be out of the tube here

In the view of one Power 4 commissioner, the ACC’s Jim Phillips, such an approach to scheduling in non-football sports is easier said than done.

“In principle, it sounds great,” Phillips told USA TODAY Sports. “I think the difficulty is — how do you execute it with conferences and leagues that have gotten so big, not only in number, but from a geography standpoint? But I don’t disagree with Charlie and what he’s stating there. How do you make that work?”

There was a time, two decades ago, where the autonomy conferences were much more confined to a geographic footprint. The Pac-12 was thriving on the west coast, the ACC held down the east coast, the Big Ten was saddled in the midwest, the SEC owned the south and the Big 12 was situated across six states in the country’s middle, spanning from Texas to Iowa.

But then the old Big East’s football league began to splinter. The Big Ten poached Nebraska and Maryland. Missouri and Texas A&M fled to the SEC, and Texas and Oklahoma followed a decade later. The departures of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington led to the implosion of the old Pac-12, with schools finding refuge in the ACC and Big 12.

So now, with the SEC as the only outlier, three of the four Power 4 leagues stretch from coast-to-coast. The Big Ten has members in Piscataway, New Jersey, and Eugene, Oregon. The Big 12 spans from Orlando, Florida, north to Morgantown, West Virginia, and west to Salt Lake City. The ACC goes all the way south to Miami, north to Syracuse, New York, then all the way to California’s Bay Area with new members Stanford and Cal.

These setups have led to some real headaches when it comes to travel, especially in non-football sports that play multiple games per week and, at times, on weeknights. One example surfaced in March when a softball game between Oregon and Northwestern ended due to a “drop dead” time, enforced because of the Ducks’ lengthy travel. Oregon was leading 7-3, but when the game was called Northwestern had the bases loaded with the tying run up to bat.

Baker’s idea for regional scheduling in non-football sports isn’t all that novel. Four years ago, former Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner was beating a similar drum.

“To me, football is football. And they need to just go do what’s best for football,” Fortner said at the 2022 ACC Tip-Off. “Football shouldn’t be making decisions on if the swim team flies across the country — that shouldn’t be part of their decision.

“Let’s get selfish here — how are we going to take care of men’s and women’s basketball? Do we have to have all these conferences? Does that have to be the way? I don’t know. I don’t have the answer. I’m just saying, it just seems like at some point in time, the discussion has to be — football has to take care of football. Let them do that. And then, now, let’s figure out how the rest of this works. And we don’t have to fly teams from coast to coast to compete in a conference. That makes no sense to me.”

As the Power 4 conferences have bloated in size, some rivalries have been sacrificed. For example, NC State and North Carolina no longer play twice-a-year in men’s and women’s basketball. To rectify that on the men’s side this season, the Tar Heels and Wolfpack will meet in a non-conference game in Greensboro.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ACC’s Jim Phillips says regional scheduling for non-football sports is easier said than done

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos