There will be a lot of newness for the Oregon Ducks at the start of the 2024 college football season as they prepare to become members of the Big Ten Conference for the first time.
While they will have to get used to games against the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin, rather than Colorado, Washington State, and Arizona, it will also be the travel required to get to these games that could take some getting used to.
As members of the Pac-12, travel was not a major concern for the Ducks. In 2023 alone, Oregon traveled to five away games and flew approximately 8,500 miles roundtrip. The longest trip was a non-conference game vs. Texas Tech (approximately 2,700 miles roundtrip) but the average distance was just 1,600 roundtrip miles per away game.
That’s going to change in 2024. While the Ducks still hit the road five times, they are projected to fly over 15,000 miles roundtrip, with the longest being to Ann Arbor, Michigan — about 4,800 miles roundtrip.
Those numbers present an average of about 3,000 miles per trip, but when you take away the 47 miles north that the Ducks will drive to face Oregon State in Corvallis, it averages out to just under 4,000 miles per trip. That’s almost double the numbers from 2023.
Is it the end of the world? Absolutely not, but it could be a cause for concern.
On this week’s episode of the Bleav in Oregon podcast, I talked with Ducks’ legend Jonathan Stewart, and we went over potential obstacles that the Ducks need to focus on in 2024. Traveling distance was concern No. 1.
Expectations are high for Oregon in 2024.@Jonathanstewar1 and I talked about what could get in the way of those expectations. Obstacle No. 1: Travel.
UO will travel over 15,000 miles, almost twice as much as in 2023.
Full pod: https://t.co/g783RyTaQL pic.twitter.com/1lPAdlLtRV
— Zachary Neel (@zacharycneel) May 23, 2024
“When it comes to distance and traveling, we’ve got to talk about fatigue,” Stewart said. “Distance is not…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football | Ducks Wire…