Don't think I have ever seen this before... Missouri State is not staying near Jonesboro the night before the game, and is instead getting up early Saturday and making the 4-5 hour drive to Jonesboro, stopping along the way for a walk through at a Missouri High School. They will then bus all the way back to Springfield immediately after the game. Apparently they waited until very late to get hotels and found no rooms available around Jonesboro.

I've heard of Olympic Sports using these type travel arrangements, and football teams often stay in Memphis and bus the hour in here, but I've never heard of a football program driving 5 hours on the day of the game.

Missouri st is set up nicely to get slammed in this game

Baylor flew in day of game to ULM

I can see why they are not quite ready for FBS....C'mon Man!

the drive in (5 hours) isn't so weird to me... It's the stopping and doing the walkthrough at a "neutral site" before finishing the drive in.

Seems... counterproductive, as the walkthrough is not just to make sure everyone knows their role, but also so that you get a feel for the playing surface (see where the sun shines through the stadium, if the field is slow or fast, if there's a HUGE divot at the 43 yard line, etc).

(09-17-2015 09:43 PM)warhawk09 Wrote:  Baylor flew in day of game to ULM

Flying and Bus'ing are completely different-I would imagine the flight from Waco to wherever they flew to 2 hours max (probably even less).

Dawdling on a bus for 4-5 hours, with a walkthrough thrown in between departing and arrival on GAMEDAY seems very odd.

App flew to LSU the day of the game back in 2005, but this was only two months after Katrina. They did the walkthrough a local hotel's meeting room. Final score was 24-0 and it was 14-0 with 10 minutes left.

(09-18-2015 12:07 AM)T-Dog Wrote:  App flew to LSU the day of the game back in 2005, but this was only two months after Katrina. They did the walkthrough a local hotel's meeting room. Final score was 24-0 and it was 14-0 with 10 minutes left.

Yes?

I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

That isn't a long bus trip for an FCS school. Shoot we have bussed to Troy before because Roberts hated the whole mess of bus to Memphis fly to Montgomery load a bus for Troy. Travel time from stadium to stadium was about the same.

The not staying is pretty easy to figure out.

Nothing available in Jonesboro.

There are only two towns I can think of between Jonesboro and Springfield that have a decent hotel. West Plains, MO and you are still a two hour + drive by motor coach from AState and Hardy, AR and that leaves you a bit more than an hour out. In-between you have some off-brand in Thayer/Mammoth Springs.

None likely have any experience with hosting 55 players and 20-30 coaches and support staff and quantity of food required for breakfast. All have limited options to feed the group at night.

That leaves you with driving past Jonesboro and going to Memphis or veering south to Batesville.

Until the next couple hotels that are either under construction or recently announced come online, a school will have a very hard time getting a hotel to offer them a group rate in Jonesboro when they can stay full or near full at full retail price.

It might be that the reason for the walk through is that West Plains is the half way point...and that the purpose of doing this is for the players to get out and stretch their legs...being on a bus for 4 hours, then going right to warm ups then game time is tough to do. So they'll break the trip up in half, get the players moving some, then finish the journey. This might be a good idea.

(09-18-2015 07:38 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

We provide a guarantee, it's up to the teams to make their own hotel arrangements, generally because most teams prefer to stay in Memphis.

(09-18-2015 10:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 07:38 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

We provide a guarantee, it's up to the teams to make their own hotel arrangements, generally because most teams prefer to stay in Memphis.

I have never heard of the home team taking care of travel arrangements for the visiting team. Is this a UAPB not understanding how to split money in their own budget so we have to write 3 checks thing?

(09-18-2015 04:07 PM)ProfWolf2012 Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 10:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 07:38 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

We provide a guarantee, it's up to the teams to make their own hotel arrangements, generally because most teams prefer to stay in Memphis.

I have never heard of the home team taking care of travel arrangements for the visiting team. Is this a UAPB not understanding how to split money in their own budget so we have to write 3 checks thing?

I've heard of a few cases of a home team making arrangements but it's usually an isolated case due to a team having to fill a hole in short notice.

Does Missouri State have a travel partner?

(09-18-2015 04:07 PM)ProfWolf2012 Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 10:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 07:38 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

We provide a guarantee, it's up to the teams to make their own hotel arrangements, generally because most teams prefer to stay in Memphis.

I have never heard of the home team taking care of travel arrangements for the visiting team. Is this a UAPB not understanding how to split money in their own budget so we have to write 3 checks thing?

I know our games at Iowa, K State, and Oregon all saw our travel expenses covered.

(09-18-2015 06:44 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  Does Missouri State have a travel partner?

It's us.

(09-18-2015 07:21 PM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 04:07 PM)ProfWolf2012 Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 10:44 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(09-18-2015 07:38 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I guess I'm not sure what the big deal is here. This actually tells me more that Arkansas State isn't a very good host.

The majority of the time with our buy games, the host school has covered (at least partially) the cost of the hotel for our team. That obviously isn't the case for this game.

I'm not sure how this makes it seem like we suddenly arent a good candidate to move up. It's a 3:50 minute drive.

And also, we are traveling on Friday of literally every other single game this year.

We provide a guarantee, it's up to the teams to make their own hotel arrangements, generally because most teams prefer to stay in Memphis.

I have never heard of the home team taking care of travel arrangements for the visiting team. Is this a UAPB not understanding how to split money in their own budget so we have to write 3 checks thing?

I know our games at Iowa, K State, and Oregon all saw our travel expenses covered.

That is usually done by contract. A team may take a smaller guarantee, in exchange for travel being covered. Generally though, travel is not covered, we didn't cover Montana State's travel, we just paid them a larger guarantee.

Even if travel is covered, does that mean the host does al the reservations for you? I could see part of the fee being allocated as expenses and then it's up to the visiting team to do the rest.

Regardless, all this would have been in the contract that MSU signed so they still would have had plenty of notice to make travel arrangements.

I listened to their HC on the radio one time this week and I did not know ASU had a game this weekend. Thought he said they had some kind of scrimmage, but nothing anyone should care about.

Of course I got the same impression listening to him one time last year, and found out latter that there was a game against AppSt.