Oregon Ducks Football Team Travel Among Highest in Big Ten Conference

Taking a look into the distance Oregon Ducks Football will go in their first year with the Big Ten Conference. How much will it cost for Oregon fans for away games?

Oregon quarterback Dante Moore during the Oregon Ducks’ Spring Game Saturday, April 27. 2024 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

When the Oregon Ducks Football Team boards a charter plane for their first away game in Los Angeles versus the UCLA Bruins, they begin the first leg of a massive undertaking in mileage. No longer aligned with a regional conference like the PAC-12, Oregon must travel to five away games and four require a lengthy flight. 

The Oregon Ducks are the fourth highest team for miles to travel in the 2024 season, according to a recent study by Bookies.com. The Ducks will travel 12,520.56 total miles this season with an average round trip of 2,504.72 miles. Oregon Football will travel over 16 time zones throughout their first season with the Big Ten Conference.

The highest travelers in the Big Ten are all former PAC-12 teams with UCLA (22,048 miles), Washington (17,522.32 miles), and University of Southern California (12,710.62 miles) all taking the top spots.

If you compare that with Oregon’s last season travel at a total of around 8,223.4 miles, you’ll see the growing travel disparity for the West Coast based university in comparison to the traditionally Midwest programs of the Big Ten Conference. It also is to be noted that the largest distance traveled for a game in 2023 was a non-conference match-up versus Texas Tech University with about 2,696 miles traveled for a round trip.

Oregon quarterback Dante Moore throws out a pass during warmups ahead of the Oregon Ducks’ Spring Game Saturday, April 27. 2024 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

Let it be known, Oregon is playing a majority of the “closer” teams to them in the Big Ten for their 2024 season. In 2025, Oregon will make the trek to Piscataway, New Jersey to face their farthest foe in their new conference: Rutgers University. That trip alone will cost the Ducks 4,964 miles in a round trip and almost ten hours of flight time.

Oregon’s farthest Big Ten rivals are Rutgers (2,482 miles), Maryland (2,401 miles), Penn State (2,299 miles), Ohio State (2,061 miles), and Michigan (1,999 miles).

For the program, this is a doable obstacle. Shelling out more money for a chartered flight to play the University of Michigan guarantees they make back their money in national media attention, draw in more fans from different demographics, and their overall inclusion in the Big Ten conference. 

However, Oregonian fans of the Ducks may find the travel to be an impossible barrier. A ticket across the country for any one of Oregon’s four out of state games isn’t a cheap get. Oregon’s out-of-state games include the previously mentioned Los Angeles, West Lafayette, Indiana for Purdue University, Ann Arbor, Michigan for Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin for the University of Wisconsin.

As of today, the cheapest flight out of Portland International Airport to each of these locations for the weekend (Friday - Sunday) of each game is…

Versus UCLA, September 28th: $63 on Spirit Airlines (not including baggage).

Versus Purdue, October 18th: $271 on Frontier (not including baggage).

Versus Michigan, November 2nd: $216 on Frontier (not including baggage).

Versus Wisconsin, November 16th: $169 on United (not including baggage).

One thing to note: most of these flights are red-eyes or include lay-overs, so Oregon fans flying to one of these Oregon away games should stock up on a significant amount of energy drinks or coffee.

In some cases, affording a plane ticket, a game ticket, lodging, food, and more isn’t something every Duck fan can afford. Some may claim that Oregonians watching their wallet can stay home and watch their Ducks, but doesn’t a team debuting in a new conference want to show the strength of their fan travel?

On the other hand, fans of the Ducks located in the Midwest and East Coast now have an opportunity to watch their favorite team play. When Oregon’s Big Ten addition was announced, I distinctly remember Rutgers fans elated that one day soon, the green and yellow would make their way to the garden state.

Most important, is the impact this travel can have on the athletes. Increased travel could mean less time studying or less time preparing for their upcoming game. 

There’s truly a lot to consider for the Ducks, but hopefully someone at the Oregon HQ is racking up some serious travel points for the university.