Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 5-2015 Environmental Impact of Conference Realignment Bradley Farley Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Human Geography Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, and the Physical and Environmental Geography Commons Recommended Citation Farley, Bradley, "Environmental Impact of Conference Realignment" (2015). Master's Theses. 565. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/565 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT by Bradley Farley A thesis submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Geography Western Michigan University May 2015 Thesis Committee: Lisa DeChano-Cook, Ph.D., Chair Gregory Veeck, Ph.D. Lucius Hallett IV, Ph.D. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT Bradley Farley, M.A. Western Michigan University, 2015 Sports have a large impact on the environment. While leagues and teams are looking at improving their sustainability at stadiums, they also have increased their travel distances. NCAA Division I athletic conferences have recently endured conference realignments. This expanding geographic footprint of these conferences has led to teams having an increased travel distances for all sports. This research investigates the environmental impact of travel distances that conference realignment has had in NCAA Division I athletics, particularly regarding the Power 5 conferences carbon footprint.