Delayed flights, missed meals and little sleep: How college teams adjusted to cross-country travel

IF THERE WERE ever a moment when Oregon State baseball coach Mitch Canham would have had reason to second-guess his decision for the Beavers to play an independent schedule in the wake of the Pac-12's collapse, it might have been in the early hours of March 31.

Oregon State had just completed a three-game series at Nebraska and was waiting out a four-hour delay in the Denver airport. The team still had a two-and-a-half-hour flight to go, and it would take at least another two hours after that to get on the bus in Portland and drive home to Corvallis, just as the rest of the town would be starting their day.

It started ordinarily enough, but this Sunday quickly devolved into a comedy of errors.

There was a standard breakfast before the noon game, which had a three-hour window to be played before the team needed to leave for the Lincoln airport to catch its flight. Things started to go off the rails in the bottom of the seventh inning. That's when OSU gave up nine runs before another in the eighth to lose 16-7, after which it found out a popular local barbecue joint had cancelled the team's postgame meal.

The Beavers didn't have enough time to make other food arrangements -- or shower -- before they needed to be at the airport, so they took their chances at finding food at the terminal. There turned out to be only one option, a sandwich spot, but as the Beavers arrived, the place's only two workers got into a loud argument.

"We're trying to get a sandwich right before we get on the plane, because we haven't eaten and they just start going at each other," Canham said. "One guy is like, 'I quit.' And we say, "No, not yet, man. How about we get 30 sandwiches real quick and then you quit?'"

The plea didn't work, leaving this increasingly hungry college baseball team without a meal for another couple hours before the members would have a chance to grab food during their layover in Denver. And when they were delayed, it felt like the team was living an elaborate prank.

"We look at each other, we laugh and alright, what's next?" Canham said. "How do we make the best of this?"

If there was any consolation for Canham as he tried to get some sleep in the airport that night, it came when he found out several of his players crossed paths in the terminal with the Cal baseball team. Their former Pac-12 rival -- now playing in the ACC -- was on its way back from Louisville, and its flight wasn't going to leave until 6 a.m.

These are no longer just isolated inconveniences, they're the new normal.

Oregon State's long trek home was more than just a rough travel day, it was a glimpse of the logistical challenges many programs now face. For Oregon State, Cal, UCLA and other West Coast teams, this year of realignment has brought a constant grind to remain at the highest levels of college athletics.

WHEN THE DUST settled on the latest round of college sports realignment, few schools bore as much responsibility as UCLA. Along with crosstown rival USC, the Bruins were a main driver in breaking up the Pac-12 when they opted to leave for the Big Ten.

For football, the situation was different. The travel generally involves shorter trips than most nonrevenue sports, and schools typically charter flights for football, which limits many of the headaches that come with commercial travel. Most of the trips align with weekend game schedules, so there's less interference with academics, making the whole proposition more manageable.

But what would it mean for nonrevenue sports such as women's soccer?

"My first reaction was obviously a bit of surprise," said UCLA women's soccer coach Margueritte Aozasa, who led the Bruins to the 2022 national title in her first year as coach. "I was on a recruiting call when the news dropped, and I was like, 'Oh.' But at the same time, I was pleased because the Big Ten is well-positioned in the future of collegiate sports."

Aozasa and her staff soon realized that while the number of trips on UCLA's 2024 schedule didn't change much from the Pac-12 days, the cross-country flights added significant fatigue.

"The biggest adjustment we'll make going forward is investing more in recovery," Aozasa said. "Our team actually performed really well on the road, but it was the games the next week, when we had to come back after making that longer travel trip, that we noticed it."

To track that toll, UCLA relied on GPS wearables and readiness surveys, which showed higher levels of fatigue and soreness than usual. The data helped confirm what coaches had anticipated, that there would need to be different recovery processes than when most of the games were confined to the West Coast.

Some early-season injuries also added to the strain. Players logged more minutes than expected, and the cumulative wear of flights, hotels and unfamiliar fields only added to the challenge.

"It wasn't just the travel," Aozasa said. "We were very shorthanded early on, so that stretch of games -- Kentucky, Tennessee, then two back-to-back Big Ten trips -- it really tested us."

The impact was felt most acutely during the Big Ten conference tournament, which was already a new concept as the Pac-12 didn't have a postseason conference tournament. UCLA won the tournament, but doing so meant the Bruins had to play three games in six days -- including a snow delay in Minnesota -- as a precursor to the NCAA tournament.

"We definitely felt it," Aozasa said. "Playing three games in six days away and then coming back was not easy. It's something we, as a staff, have to adjust to."

UCLA received a No. 2 seed in the tournament, but was eliminated in the second round.

Aozasa expects that with time the sort of issues they dealt with for the first time this season won't feel like issues at all, and they'll just be part of life in big-time college athletics. The team will be able to learn from the experiences each season and apply those lessons down the road.

"Last year was probably the only time we'll have to plan a nonconference schedule before we had the conference dates," Aozasa said. "This year, we're back on track. We have our home and away opponents and the dates set, so we can plan more thoughtfully."

One of the main topics for concern as realignment dispersed West Coast teams across the country was the potential impact on academics. And while that remains top of mind for many coaches, Aozasa said the adjustment was easier than she expected.

For a sport like women's soccer, the number of missed classes didn't really change. Yes, their flights were longer, but the number of travel days was similar.

"If we were having this conversation seven or eight years ago, it would be a different story," she said. "But now, with how used to remote learning everyone is, our players didn't have to make any major adjustments on the academic side."

There was also the benefit of being exposed to new places.

"We had players who had never been to the Midwest," Aozasa said. "They got to see college towns for the first time, experience a pumpkin patch that wasn't in a parking lot. The girls loved it."

For all the talk of challenges, Aozasa said she was proud of how her team adapted.

"We have to be adaptable," Aozasa said. "We have to be advocates for the health and wellbeing of our players, but we also have to be adaptable. That's the only way forward in college sports today."

Aozasa's positive outlook on competing in the Big Ten wasn't a stance shared on campus by men's basketball coach Mick Cronin, who at various points this past season expressed frustration with UCLA's new life on the road.

Following a home win against Iowa in January, Cronin was asked about what kind of impact the travel to the West Coast might have had on Iowa.

"Wear and tear on them? Is that a joke? Please tell me that's a joke," Cronin said. "We have to go back [East] four times. Oh, the Big Ten teams get to come to Los Angeles where it's 70 degrees one time a year. They don't even have to switch hotels. [UCLA and USC] are 12 miles apart, are you kidding me? Please tell me you're kidding me."

Cronin's rant went on.

"We've seen the Statue of Liberty twice in the last three weeks while we were landing. We also saw the Capitol Building," Cronin said. "And we've still got to go back, and then we've got to go back for the Big Ten tournament. They do it one time."

By the time UCLA's season was over, the Bruins took 12 trips outside of Los Angeles, traversing the country to the tune of approximately 35,240 miles in the air. After flying approximately 21,000 miles the year before, it was an increase of about 66%.

Still, UCLA finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten during the regular season and earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. After winning their first-round game against Utah State 72-46, the Bruins bowed out in the second round with a 67-58 loss to second-seeded Tennessee.

With the loss marking the end to a long, often frustrating season, Cronin delivered another memorable round of travel critiques in the postgame news conference.

"Right now guys, it's 12:40 a.m. and our season just ended," he said. "Right now my biggest concern is how bad the seats are on [our Allegiant Air] flight, on that terrible plane we're going to have to fly home tomorrow."

Cronin's unfiltered criticism made it clear he felt like UCLA was at a competitive disadvantage with the amount of travel his team had to do within the Big Ten compared to the conference's longtime members.

While it should be easy to understand his point, and it is hard to argue against it, Cronin isn't exactly a sympathetic figure, for a couple reasons. The most obvious is that UCLA brought this upon itself. While Cronin might not have been consulted on the decision to leave to the Pac-12 and is in no way responsible for the move, the university was not forced into this new normal like, for example, Oregon State was. UCLA determined the increased media revenue from being in the Big Ten was worth sacrificing in other ways.

Then, of course, there is the success of the women's basketball programs at UCLA and USC, which dealt with the same kind of travel challenges and still managed to go a combined 65-7 during the regular season and earned No. 1 seeds, before they were both eliminated by eventual champion UConn. The travel might make winning more difficult, but after one season it's impossible to say with any confidence to what degree it makes a difference.

In 2024, the UCLA softball team played two games outside the Pacific Time Zone during the regular season -- both in an early-season invitational tournament in Florida -- before the NCAA tournament and its eventual trip to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma.

This year, that number jumped to 14, including a six-game road trip that included games in Iowa, Washington D.C. and Maryland. But the results were similar. UCLA hosted in the first round and took two of three last week in a super regional at South Carolina to return to the Women's College World Series. If there was a competitive disadvantage that came from more time on the road, it was minimal.

AFTER MOST OF the Pac-12 fled for safe haven in the Big Ten, Big 12 and, finally, the ACC, Oregon State -- along with Washington State -- lost the proverbial game of musical chairs.

It left Canham weighing the future of Oregon State baseball. Realignment did not leave the Beavers with many viable options to maintain their place as an elite college baseball destination.

"I looked at the possibilities and just didn't see anything that lined up," Canham said. "A lot of the options were conferences that typically get one bid into the postseason. And that's not the level we want for our program or our players. We want to play the best."

Washington State sent its baseball team to the Mountain West as an affiliate member, but that wasn't an appealing destination for the Beavers. So, after seeking out the viability of affiliate membership elsewhere, Oregon State made a bold decision: it went independent. The Beavers are the only independent college baseball team this season, and they'll be independent again in 2026.

The choice came with a heavy dose of uncertainty and an even heavier travel burden. Without a conference to rely on for a bulk of the scheduling, Canham spent hours on the phone, calling around to piece together a full slate of games.

"I needed an opportunity to try to fill out a schedule and see if we could make this work," he said. "I was going to call and ask for that game to fill a complete schedule."

While Oregon State's ballpark, Goss Stadium, offered a premier setting, getting other teams to visit -- especially late in the season during conference play -- was difficult. Many preferred to keep their bye weeks at home, leaving Oregon State with little leverage to bring opponents to Corvallis.

"I assumed that everyone would want to come here and play because of the history, the ambience, just the beauty of the ballpark," Canham said. "But for Year 1, that was not necessarily in the cards for many schools."

The Beavers instead faced an exhausting schedule of away games, spending countless hours in airports, buses and hotel rooms. Of their 54 games this season, only 19 were at home.

It was the kind of season that tested everything: sleep schedules, nutrition, recovery. It wasn't unusual for the team to practice on the road as late as 9 p.m. on a Thursday after a full day of travel.

Earlier this month, the team met at its facility to catch a 4 a.m. bus to get to Portland for a flight to Iowa. But the bus never showed up, leaving coaches to pack players and bags into their own cars.

"I go, 'There's no bus,'" Canham said. "So I said, 'All right, everybody, coaches get your cars.' We loaded up all the guys and drove them to the airport ourselves."

But if any program was equipped for adversity, it was Oregon State. With three national championships in 2006, 2007 and 2018, the Beavers have long been a powerhouse in college baseball. Under former coach Pat Casey, Oregon State became one of the most respected programs in the country.

That tradition has carried on under Canham, a former Oregon State catcher who played on the 2006 and 2007 title-winning teams. He has seen firsthand what it takes to succeed on the national stage, and he is doing everything within his power to maintain that legacy.

"This is a program that's built on toughness and resilience," he said. "We've played in some of the biggest games in college baseball history, and we're going to keep pushing to be in that conversation every year."

Despite the chaos of this independent season, the Beavers refused to view it as a burden.

"None of these are complaints," Canham said. "These are all blessings, how we choose to look at this. Because if we're trying to prep these guys for going on and playing in the professional ranks, they're going to be doing a lot of that constant travel on the road."

In Cal's first baseball season in the ACC, coach Mike Neu also had to reimagine his strategy to scheduling. The Bears would have to cross the country for any conference away games except against Bay Area-rival Stanford, so Neu wanted to limit the travel early on.

"Once I found everything out, the goal was, 'Let's play more at home knowing we're going to travel a little bit more, and let's leave a day earlier,'" he said.

His focus was on cutting down on travel days, reshuffling midweek games and ensuring his players had enough time to recover and adjust to different environments. Cal had been scheduled to play in a tournament in Texas, but Neu backed out of that and replaced it with local games.

In the past, Cal had always left on Thursday for road trips in the Pac-12, but that changed this year. For trips back East, the team would leave on Wednesday. The change came for a couple reasons, but largely stems from an experience Cal had traveling to Pittsburgh in 2023. For that trip, Cal's direct Thursday flight to Pennsylvania was canceled. The team ended up having to connect and got in very late that night, without the chance to practice and get acclimated.

"That's one of those factors that probably made the decision easier to leave on Wednesday because if that happens on Wednesday, OK, we're going to be fine," Neu said.

After playing mostly local games to start the season, Neu said he'll likely replicate the plan next year, and he is confident the team could actually handle another out-of-town tournament at the start of the season or another road trip, possibly in Southern California.

"I don't think that would be overwhelming for us," Neu said. "I think this season has probably given me the confidence we don't have to play every game at home in the preseason."

Playing at home didn't end up serving as much of an advantage, at least not in the most basic way to evaluate such things. The Bears finished the season 12-18 at home, 10-12 on the road and limped to a 9-21 record to finish in last place in the ACC. With the No. 16 seed in the ACC tournament last week, Cal won a pair of 9 a.m. ET games in Durham, North Carolina, against No. 9 Miami and No. 8 Wake Forest before being eliminated by top-seeded Georgia Tech.

THE TRAVEL TOLL was real, but -- at least for Oregon State -- so was the payoff. After finishing their independent season 41-12-1, the Beavers earned the No. 8 national seed in the NCAA tournament. That means they'll host a regional in Corvallis that begins Friday and, if they advance, they would again play host, but for a super regional.

The question now is whether any of this is truly sustainable. Will the cross-country flights, missed meals and sleep-deprived nights slowly erode the competitive edge these programs have fought so hard to maintain? Will players be worn down by the mental and physical toll, or will they find ways to adapt, season after season?

For now, the realignment trend across college sports is for conferences to become more national. But with such a drastic shift, it's fair to wonder whether, years from now, some of these nonrevenue sports might ultimately trend back in the other direction. That day won't come soon, but the jury is still out on whether this new era of constant travel is truly the way forward, or simply a phase that college sports will eventually outgrow.