Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > October > 04 > Entry
Blog: Road Kill in College Sports
College sports teams always live by the mantra: “There’s no place like home.”
But that’s never been more true than now, where rising jet fuel costs and extra baggage fees are bookended by the dire economic crisis to make road games a financial nightmare.
Here’s just one example.
When Ohio State went out to play Southern Cal last month, it took two chartered flights for its players, coaches, support personnel and boosters. The cost was $346,000. In the past, the fuel surcharge that was tacked on top of that was no more than a couple of thousand dollars Bucks’ finance director Ben Jay told the New York Times. This time it was $24,200.
Whopping bills like that are taking a toll on OSU, but with a $115 million athletic budget this year — the largest in the nation — it can absorb it a little better than some schools.
Imagine if you’re one of the majority of programs just scraping by or already running in the red?
The Times detailed some of this in a story Saturday and told how some cash-strapped programs are not sending all their players on trips and others are thinking of shortening their seasons. Just one less road game saves a bundle.
I can only fathom the hurdles facing a program like the University of Hawaii.
As for the University of Alaska at Anchorage, every road game it’s teams play requires a flight. It’s closest opponent is Fairbanks and that’s 310 miles away.
The hockey team makes several trips to Minnesota this season and travels to Colorado, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan, plays two games in Fairbanks and two more in Wasilla.
According to the school’s athletics director Dr. Steve Cobb, the average athlete logs 25,000 milles each season.
And you know how you get charged if you show up at the airline ticket counter now with more than one checked bag? Imagine a hockey team…or, worse, a football team.
With withering costs like there are now, the landscape of college sports is going to change. Some programs may fold. Others will scale back. And student athletes — if they do make the travel roster — will learn to pack light.
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By Diamond Dave
October 7, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this
Sometimes, it doesn’t stop with the road games. In men’s ice hockey, the University of Alaska (Fairbanks), in order to join the CCHA, made a deal to pay for travel expenses for road teams (Miami U., Michigan, Ohio St., Michigan St., etc.) when they fly to Fairbanks to play the Nanooks. That’s right, up to 35 round-trip plane tickets each and every weekend of Conference play. OUCH!