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Ranking Big Ten Teams By Miles Traveled Reveals Surprising Teams At Top

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  Published in Travel and Leisure on Thursday, September 11th 2025 at 16:25 GMT by Sports Illustrated
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Big Ten on the Road: How Miles Traveled Shape a Season – and Why USC and Oregon Stand Out on the West Coast

When college football analysts talk about “strength of schedule,” they usually mean the mix of ranked opponents, conference rivalries, and home‑field advantage. A new Sports Illustrated piece takes a different tack, measuring the physical distance teams cover each season to see whether travel itself is a hidden factor in a team's fortunes. The article, titled “Ranking Big Ten Teams: Miles Traveled Reveals Surprising Teams – USC Trojans, Oregon Ducks, Plane Schedule Hardest West Coast,” dives into the raw data, uncovers a few unexpected heavy‑weights, and then turns the spotlight onto West‑Coast giants USC and Oregon, whose schedules depend almost entirely on air travel.

The Methodology: Counting Every Mile

The author pulls the 2023‑24 Big Ten schedule from the conference’s official website and the NCAA’s game‑by‑game database, then calculates the round‑trip distance for each game from the team’s home stadium to the opponent’s. For away games, the travel distance includes the return leg, so the final “miles traveled” figure reflects the full round‑trip load. By summing up all the trips for each team, the piece produces a season‑long total that can be compared across the conference.

This approach is straightforward, but it also has a few caveats that the article notes: (1) it does not account for the fact that some teams fly while others drive; (2) it ignores intra‑campus commuting or the distance to the nearest major airport; and (3) it treats every game as equal, even though a single, long road trip might have a disproportionate impact on a team’s fatigue.

Surprising Heavy‑Hitters

When the list of teams by total miles traveled is sorted from lightest to heaviest, the results are a mix of intuitive and unexpected findings.

Purdue and Illinois top the list as the teams that travel the least. Their schedules consist largely of intra‑conference games that keep them within the Midwest’s roughly 200‑mile radius. Conversely, Iowa and Michigan rank high, not because they have a lot of road games, but because their home stadiums are on the western edge of the conference, so most of their travel is toward the east.

What surprised even the author was that Nebraska—often associated with the high‑octane football of the 1990s—ranked 8th. Nebraska’s 2023 schedule includes a trip to the University of California (over 2,600 miles) and a drive up the Midwest to Ohio State, adding to an already sizable load.

Why West‑Coast Giants Suffer the Longest Trips

The article’s most eye‑catching section zooms in on the West‑Coast schedule, specifically looking at USC and Oregon. While the Big Ten analysis focuses on miles on the road, the West‑Coast teams are essentially a separate sub‑conference, and their travel dynamics differ dramatically.

• USC Trojans: Their 2023 schedule includes road games against Washington (1,200 miles), Stanford (1,000 miles), and a key rivalry matchup against the University of Oregon (1,200 miles). Because these games require long flights, the “plane schedule” becomes a factor—air travel can be more taxing due to layovers, jet lag, and the time zone shifts that impact recovery.

• Oregon Ducks: Oregon’s road trip to USC is a 1,300‑mile flight, while their trip to Utah is another 1,200 miles. In addition, the Ducks travel east to play Notre Dame and Cincinnati, adding to the cumulative strain. The article notes that the Ducks’ travel “amounts to a significant portion of their overall schedule, with more than 60% of their games requiring air transport.”

The piece highlights that the West‑Coast’s “plane schedule” is the hardest in the country because teams spend more time on the road, often crossing time zones, and have fewer short‑distance drives that would allow for rapid recovery. In contrast, the Big Ten teams, with most of their travel on the ground, can often use the same long bus trip for multiple days of practice.

What the Numbers Mean for Performance and Cost

The article brings in insights from a former Big Ten coach who served on the NCAA travel committee. He notes that “travel fatigue isn’t just about the number of miles; it’s about the type of travel, the schedule’s rhythm, and the players’ ability to recover.” Long, back‑to‑back flights can sap energy, reduce practice quality, and increase the risk of injury.

Financially, the analysis includes a rough estimate of the cost per mile for each team, using an average $0.25 per mile for travel expenses. This places USC at a projected travel budget of around $45,000 for the season, while a Midwest team like Iowa’s budget tops out at roughly $12,000. The article points out that the financial disparity can influence recruiting budgets, practice resources, and even the ability to invest in travel amenities that help mitigate fatigue.

Links to Further Reading

The Sports Illustrated piece is part of a broader discussion on the hidden costs of college football scheduling. A link at the bottom of the article leads to an earlier SI feature, “Travel’s Impact on Team Performance: The Untold Story of College Football’s Long Journeys,” which provides a deeper dive into how long trips correlate with late‑season performance dips. Another external reference cites a research study from the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, which found a 3–5% drop in game performance when teams traveled over 1,000 miles without adequate rest.

Takeaway

The new article reminds us that the “strength of schedule” is a multi‑layered concept. A team’s success isn’t just about who they play; it’s also about how far they have to go. While the Big Ten’s most heavily burdened teams are those on the conference’s periphery, the West‑Coast’s reliance on long‑distance air travel creates a different type of strain that can affect performance in ways that are rarely discussed in traditional ranking metrics. For fans, coaches, and the NCAA alike, acknowledging travel as an integral part of the season could lead to smarter scheduling decisions, better support for player health, and ultimately a more equitable competitive landscape.