First, Happy Memorial Day, Spartans Illustrated family! I hope that everyone has a chance to relax, spend time with family, and reflect on the sacrifices that have built the foundation for our great nation.
One of the many tidbits of data that I tracked this past was the impact that travel may or may not have had on the newly expanded Big Ten. I have always been of the mind that jetlag and travel have a bigger impact on game outcomes and performance than many admit or realize. I attempted to test that theory based on the full set of Big Ten regular season data. There is not enough meat on this bone for a full article, so I thought that it would be best just to drop the information here.
The approach that I took was to look at two different sets of games from several different angles. First, there were a total of 28 games in the Big Ten regular season (out of 180 total) where one of the 14 teams from the "old" Big Ten flew to the west coast to play one of the "new" Big Ten members. For example, Michigan State went to L.A. for a long weekend to face USC and UCLA. Other teams took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to face Oregon and Washington in the same trip.
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One of the many tidbits of data that I tracked this past was the impact that travel may or may not have had on the newly expanded Big Ten. I have always been of the mind that jetlag and travel have a bigger impact on game outcomes and performance than many admit or realize. I attempted to test that theory based on the full set of Big Ten regular season data. There is not enough meat on this bone for a full article, so I thought that it would be best just to drop the information here.
The approach that I took was to look at two different sets of games from several different angles. First, there were a total of 28 games in the Big Ten regular season (out of 180 total) where one of the 14 teams from the "old" Big Ten flew to the west coast to play one of the "new" Big Ten members. For example, Michigan State went to L.A. for a long weekend to face USC and UCLA. Other teams took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to face Oregon and Washington in the same trip.
This is premium content. Please subscribe to view.
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