Wawa vs. Sheetz: the college basketball tournament you didn’t know you needed
Which regional chain has the better CBB pedigree?
Yesterday, former Stony Brook Athletics communications associate Miles McQuiggan shared a tweet from his current employer Bryant University, announcing their men’s basketball non-conference schedule. In it, he noted a certain geographic feature of the team’s first two months of games.
Wawa, for those living under a rock, is a gas station. But no, not just any gas station! To those living in the greater Philly region in particular, their local Wawa doubles as a fast-food staple, a 7 Eleven replacement, and possibly a place of worship. Unfortunately, they do not exist on Long Island, or, it would seem, in Rhode Island, where Bryant is located.
If you’re familiar with Wawa, there’s a good chance you’re just as aware of the longstanding beef between Wawa and midwest knockoff Sheetz. To loyal customers of each, the opposition isn’t just inferior, it’s hardly worthy of existance. Literally an entire feature length documentary is being made about the rivalry between the two companies.
McQuiggan’s tweet got me wondering though: with so many ways to measure one chain’s superiority over the other, why not leave the decision up to the greatest equalizer known to man: NCAA Division I college basketball strength of schedule. Which chain’s geographic footprint contains the tougher slate of college basketball programs?
To help visualize the regions we’re talking about, here’s a sliding image where you can switch between a Sheetz vs. Wawa heatmap and a comprehensive listing of all NCAA Division I basketball programs in the mid-Atlantic. Kudos to Joshua Stevens, literally a NASA employee, for putting together the Wawa/Sheetz map and sharing it with the world some years ago.
A few things. First, Sheetz benefits from having a much wider geographic footprint than Wawa, which is more narrowly contained to the far more populated coastline.
Yet despite its fondness for urban sprawl, Wawa also doesn’t have a presence any further north than New Jersey, meaning they miss out on a dense cluster of Division I programs in the New York City region — including Stony Brook. Boo.
But Sheetz’ biggest advantage is their moderate footprint in the Tar Heel State. Wawa hasn’t yet made it south of Virginia, ceding UNC, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest to the competition. They do have a heavy presence in Richmond — netting them a VCU squad that many think will carve out a home in the Top 25 this season — but they go no further west, meaning the rest of the ACC — that is, Virginia Tech, UVA, and Pitt— are also firmly on Team Sheetz.
Wawa isn’t without its ballers, though. Seton Hall, Villanova, Maryland, and Georgetown are all solidly within their boundaries, along with a cavalcade of strong mid-major programs like Princeton, Delaware, Penn, Towson, and Monmouth. And Wawa sees Sheetz’ UVA, and raises them UMBC.
But alas, the depth on Sheetz’ ledger is just too much to overcome. In addition to the aforementioned ACC programs, West Virginia, Bucknell, Radford, Penn State, and UNC-Greensboro all ride with Sheetz as well. You could likely put together a 15-game non-conference slate using nothing but the Sheetz map as a guide and emerge with the top-rated strength of schedule in the country.
So by this metric — and literally no others — Sheetz has the edge over Wawa.
For what it’s worth, Stony Brook will have ample opportunities to make pit stops at both Sheetz and Wawa this season, with stops planned for Virginia, Seton Hall, Delaware, and American this season. And in the meantime, someone get the CEOs of Sheetz and Wawa in a room together and hammer out details for the Sheetz/Wawa Preseason Showcase, to be held annually and in perpetuity at the Palestra.
