BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Yup.

 

Counter-point ... not really sure why anyone gets their panties in a wad over Mountain West travel expenses. Who cares? If their schools want to spend the money, it's their choice, good or bad. Hawaii does subsidize travel in the Big West, but those schools don't play major football or play football at all.

Hawaii was in the original WAC from 1979-2012. Usually better than mainland flotsam like New Mexico and San Jose State too, so it's not like this is something new.

 

Hawaii has football trophy games with four current MW members: UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force and San Jose State.

 

When I was an SID at a mid-major, we played a men's basketball tournament in Hawaii the week before Thanksgiving. Most of the coaches brought their families. The school paid for my wife to go, so I assume it was picking up the tab for everyone. There was a lot of downtime on that trip, so it was pretty much a vacation on someone else's dime.

 

There are some funny stories about the now-nearly forgotten American Basketball League (not the ABA) in 1961 which aspired to "major league" status, which in its inaugural season featured a franchise in Honolulu, then in the brand new state of Hawaii.

The ABL schedule featured teams taking four game road trips to Hawaii twice per season (I'm probably getting some of the details wrong). In return the Chiefs would take 8- and 12-game road trips to the mainland. The ABL was such a shoestring operation they only carried eight players on road trips to cut down on travel and hotel expenses.

The player salaries in the ABL were pretty bargain basement too, the odds of any of the players making a trip to Hawaii on their own dime were pretty far fetched.

So, as the stories went, the intra team competition within teams to make the "travel squads" got pretty intensive. Every bench player and marginal starter would go ball hog crazy the last week or so before the Hawaii trip, hoping a 15 point game would punch their ticket.

Then, once the teams DID go to the island, they usually had four games in a week. Once arrived, they'd party like motherfuckers every night, lay out on the beach all day, getting burned like lobsters by the end of the week. Supposedly it took teams a month to recover from the Hawaii trips.

Sadly the Hawaii Chiefs only played one season before moving to Long Beach for the second season, during which the league folded at
Christmastime.

 

Just as memorable were the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. Teams were scheduled for eight game series there (Jim Bouton wrote about it in "Ball Four"). At different times, they were affiliated with the Athletics, Padres, Angels, Pirates, Senators, White Sox and Pirates, but were also allowed to sign their own players, including UH legend Derek Tatsuno. Chuck Tanner managed there. Radio announcers included Harry Kalas, Hank Greenwald and Al Michaels. Road games were done via recreation. They played at decaying Honolulu Stadium, aka the Termite Palace, until the mid-70s, when Aloha Stadium opened, which was an upgrade, but also moved the team away from its fan base.

 

An entire Hawaii Five-O episode was based around the Islanders, including a cameo acting performance from Michaels.

 

I remember that the Islanders usually lead the minors in attendance. It was considered the elite Triple A team.

 

Historic House-NCAA settlement leaving hundreds of Olympic sport athletes in peril