How do college football players travel?

One of the fun parts of being on a college football team is traveling with your friends to different competitions. There are many different ways a college football team can travel, but it depends on which school you are going to and how far you are traveling. I have researched which ways college football teams travel, so you can prepare for your next game day.

A lot of college football teams travel by charter bus. Bus travel is cheaper than flying, so it is preferable to smaller universities. Yet, if a university has a lot of money and its football team is substantial then it is typical for the players to ride by airplane to their sporting events.

As you can see there are a few options for how football teams travel. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these modes of transportation though. Continue reading to learn more about sports traveling.

Charter Bus

The most common form of travel for sports teams is charter buses. Not only do schools that don’t have any other means of transportation use charter buses, but also schools that do use air flights.

Charter buses can be used to transport the team from campus to the airports or from the airports to the stadiums.

Charter buses can be a great form of team spirit. Many of the charter buses that college football teams use are privately owned by the school to save on rental expenses.

This means they can be customized to have the school’s colors and emblem on it. This also brings around good publicity for your team as you are driving on the freeway.

Another great thing about charter buses is that there are a lot of storage opportunities on charter buses, so gear can be packed neatly, and there are no worries about someone’s luggage being lost.

They can be very comfortable depending on how much money the school spends on their charter buses. Some charter buses come with large seats and others with small TVs.

Generally traveling by bus is less expensive than traveling by air. On average it costs about half to travel by bus instead of a plane. This is a great way to save school funds.

This is why charter buses are the most common form of transport and is highly favored among smaller universities.

The main disadvantage of charter buses is that it takes longer to travel. You will get to where you are going slower, and there are always worries such as getting lost on the way.

Also, you have to find parking that accommodates the large size of a charter bus.

Airline Flying

Now, this is one of the least common ways of travel. It is harder to travel as a team on an airline, but it has been done.

United Airlines has actually flown a lot of smaller college teams to their next competition. This of course requires a lot of planning and organization to do.

The main problem with airline flying is luggage. Having to worry about gear getting stored right and having all the things the players need for their trip takes up a lot of storage space.

Airlines are not as accommodating as charter buses in that department.

Another issue is coordinating. It is easy to get separated in an airport and making sure everyone has their ticket and gets through security alright can be challenging.

If one player gets lost it can be a major setback to everyone on the team.

Private Plane

Now, this is what the big teams do. Flying on a private plane makes getting to and from sporting events super easy and quick.

Most of the time a school will not fly by plane even if they are a wealthier team unless they are traveling to a distant state or participating in a playoff or Super Bowl Game.

This is to help with expenses. Planes are definitely the most expensive way to travel, but they can be fun for your team.

One time colleges tend to use planes to transport their players is for Friday evening games. This way they can fly them in and back so they have time to study and rest for school on Monday.

Working in sports is fun, but it can be hard on reaching your educational goals.

It is projected that air flights will become the new normal in college football transportation, though. Flying by private jet is a way to show superiority.

It also is a way to keep athletes in their best physical position so they can play their game as well as they can. It helps bridge the disadvantage gap of playing at someone else’s home.

Private planes also have great storage space. The whole storage area is for football use. This means that you can pack all of the gear.

You can also pack all of the player’s belongings and do not have to worry about losing luggage.

Also, on the same note as the charter bus you are on a plane ride with all of your friends, which can mean a lot of fun can go down.

Lots of private planes are very nice. They usually serve alcohol and they can have very nice spacious seats. This will help keep your team well-rested and ready to perform.

Train

Now the first mode of transportation for football players to use was the train. Trains are not used so much for travel nowadays, though.

Trains tend to not go as fast as other means of transport, such as airplanes and even buses. Yet, it was very commonly used from the 1930s to the 1950s. Villanova State was recorded using a train to travel for their games.

Airplanes were the mode of transportation that got rid of trains for all of the reasons mentioned above. Airplanes entered the picture in the late 1950s.

Trains also had the same problem as commercial airlines where there wasn’t always enough storage space for all of the equipment needed. This is why trains are not the best way to travel to get to your sporting events.