Changing Shapes
| | Diam
(mi) | Conf | Extreme | Mean
(mi) |
| 1 | 4034.5 | WAC | Hawaii↔La Tech | 1254.5 | 1 |
| 2 | 1686.2 | CUSA | ECU↔UTEP | 639.0 | 2 |
| 4 | 1223.0 | P10 | Arizona↔Washington | 600.3 | 3 |
| 6 | 1138.0 | SBC | FIU↔UNT | 548.5 | 4 |
| 5 | 1150.8 | MW | SDSU↔TCU | 526.8 | 5 |
| 7 | 1116.7 | BigE | UConn↔USF | 500.0 | 6 |
| 8 | 842.8 | B12 | Iowa St↔Texas | 434.7 | 7 |
| 3 | 1260.8 | ACC | BC↔Miami | 408.1 | 8 |
| 10 | 816.7 | SEC | Florida↔Arkansas | 356.3 | 9 |
| 9 | 831.1 | B10 | Minnesota↔PSU | 310.8 | 10 |
| 11 | 722.3 | MAC | Temple↔NIU | 242.5 | 11 |
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The effects are a year or two away, but as the pundits proclaim "the shape of college football is changing" it is worth
looking at what the "shape" is so we can measure the "change."
The table at right shows the maximum and average distance between pairs of teams in the same conference, as FBS conferences are currently constituted. To no one's surprise, the WAC is the "biggest" conference just because it includes Hawai'i. Including Louisiana Tech doesn't help - they're an average of 1500 miles away from their conference-mates not including Hawaii.
The average (mean column) is over all pairs of teams in the conference. That's the average distance from each campus to every other campus. In most cases not every team pair makes the trip every year.
So how much is the "landscape" going to change?
Neither of the additions to the Pac 10 11 12 are as far from any Pac 10 team as Arizona is from Washington.
| Diam(mi) | Conf | Extreme | Mean |
| 1223.0 | P10x | Arizona↔Washington | 631.50 |
| 1223.0 | P10 | Arizona↔Washington | 600.33 |
|
| Diam(mi) | Conf | Extreme | Mean |
| 983.3 | B10x | PSU↔Nebraska | 350.24 |
| 831.1 | B10 | Minnesota↔PSU | 310.82 |
|
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Nebraska to the Big T1E1N T1E2N is more of a stretch. (Ouch, yes that was intentional... my apologies.)
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But maybe too much is being made of the geographic proximity factor in conference makeup. Even after Nebraska is added to the Big 10whatever, the conference has a smaller footprint than any conference but the MAC:
| Diam(mi) | Conf | Extreme | Mean |
| 4034.5 | WAC | Hawaii↔La Tech | 1254.51 |
| 1686.2 | CUSA | ECU↔UTEP | 638.97 |
| 1223.0 | P10x | Arizona↔Washington | 631.50 |
| 1138.0 | SBC | FIU↔UNT | 548.51 |
| 1150.8 | MW | SDSU↔TCU | 526.83 |
| 1116.7 | BigE | UConn↔USF | 500.04 |
| 842.8 | B12 | Iowa St↔Texas | 434.75 |
| 1260.8 | ACC | BC↔Miami | 408.12 |
| 816.7 | SEC | Florida↔Arkansas | 356.33 |
| 983.3 | B10x | PSU↔Nebraska | 350.24 |
| 722.3 | MAC | Temple↔NIU | 242.50 |
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