Wildcats and Illini 8 miles apart in NC

[FeliSilvestris]

Maybe this has been discussed, but it's a bit funny that both Illinois B1G schools are in NC playing at the same time just 8-miles apart (at Duke and at UNC).
Perhaps it's the first time it has ever happened. Although NU plays Duke relatively frequently, UoIL doesn't play UNC that often...wonder if the same coincidence has happened with the IL schools playing the opposite NC school.

 

[NorCalCat]

It was reminiscent of the Pac 10, where both schools in a region/state often travel to nearby sites. For example, Stanford and Cal would play Oregon and Oregon State in the same weekend.

 

[nycat33]

Last week Michigan played Oregon State and Oregon and MSU

 

[mikewebb68]

Maybe this has been discussed, but it's a bit funny that both Illinois B1G schools are in NC playing at the same time just 8-miles apart (at Duke and at UNC).
Perhaps it's the first time it has ever happened. Although NU plays Duke relatively frequently, UoIL doesn't play UNC that often...wonder if the same coincidence has happened with the IL schools playing the opposite NC school.

Their play on the football field was worlds apart today, though. The Illini result was utterly predicable, though, I was literally rofl'ing the other night when the lady on BTN (don't recall the name) thought the Illini were for real and were most likely to have the best performance vs. the ACC this weeklend....

 

[FeliSilvestris]

It was reminiscent of the Pac 10, where both schools in a region/state often travel to nearby sites. For example, Stanford and Cal would play Oregon and Oregon State in the same weekend.

Some B1G sports (for example Volleyball) make their schedule following a so-called "travel partner" scheme. The idea is for each team to play at 2 neighboring schools as part of the same road trip (say over the same weekend). For example, NU plays at UMi on Friday and at MSU on Saturday. This requires a "travel partner" team that plays at MSU when NU plays at UMi and viceversa. Your travel partner would normally be precisely your neighboring school (say Illinois in NU's case).

These days with 14 teams and unbalanced conference scheduling (a team plays certain teams twice, and others only once per season) the travel partner scheme is more complicated.

In the case of FB the travel partner scheme would not work, since each team necessarily travels back home after each road game (even if the next game is also on the road). However a minor advantage would be that it would enable families and close friends with divided allegiance to travel together before splitting to watch their favorite school. Conceivably some UofIl and NU fans traveled together from Chicago to NC to watch their respective game and stayed at the same hotel (with both games only a few miles apart).