Miles Oregon Football Travels In Inaugural Big Ten Season

Ducks Football will travel a program-record 15,222 miles for upcoming season.

Linden Hile | May 14, 2024

The Duck listens for the crowd as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

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EUGENE - One of the primary criticisms of conference realignment in college athletics has been the travel demands it places on teams who now play in conferences centered far away from where the schools are located. Oregon is one of the teams most affected by this change as the west coast power will play teams primarily from the central United States in 2024 and beyond.

The Big Ten conference expands to 18 total teams in 2024, including Oregon, the Washington Huskies, USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins.

The Oregon Ducks will travel an astonishing 15,222 miles for the 2024 football season (including a nonconference trip to Oregon State), up from 9,172 miles traveled for the 2023 regular season. Oregon's travel demands face a near-40 percent increase.

The Duck listens for the crowd as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

Although flights will inevitably cost much more, there’s also the toll this takes on staff and players, particularly as it pertains to frequently switching time zones. Whereas in the Pac-12 Conference, the vast majority of Oregon’s games were played in either Pacific or Mountain Time, the move to the Big Ten Conference involves many more games being played in the Central and Eastern time zones.

While the Ducks won’t have to make the trip out to the Eastern time zone for 2024 due to dodging schools like Rutgers and Penn State on this year’s schedule, this won’t be the case every year. It’s not hard to imagine how this travel distance could balloon even further in the coming years and be an even bigger factor in the team’s performance in road games.

It’s worth noting that some teams will have it worse than Oregon, such as Washington. The Huskies have to fly from even farther Northwest than the Ducks. In addition, California and Stanford will have even more burdensome travel demands as they transition to the Atlantic Coast Conference, made up of teams almost exclusively in the Eastern time zone.

While programs have more resources than ever to aid in recovery from these grueling trips, one can only imagine the effect this will have on the day-to-day lives of athletes and coaches alike.

Published May 13, 2024|Modified May 14, 2024

LINDEN HILE