Cowboys Have Traveling Shoes on this Football Season

STILLWATER – The college football season is just about upon us. Oklahoma State will open camp next Tuesday when all players report and then practice begins on Wednesday, Aug. 2. it won’t be long before the season starts with Oklahoma State playing two of their first four games on the road. The Cowboys have only longer road trips this season with a non conference game at Arizona State kicking off at 9:30 p.m. (central time) on Saturday, Sept. 9. Then after finishing the non conference season at home with South Alabama, the Oklahoma State opens Big 12 play on the road at Iowa State. That is a trip where you have to fly in to DesMoines. Iowa and bus to Ankeny to stay overnight and then bus into Ames on game day.

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Cowboys leaving town from Stillwater Municipal Airport. 

Long road trips can impact teams, the longer you are on a plane the more impact. The secrets are moving around some, staying hydrated, and sleep on the flight, if you can. Bodies do swell at 25-30,000 feet plus. so players dealing with injuries that include swelling can be impacted the longer the flight. That is why bookies.com has measured out all the road trips and the mileage teams will travel for games this season. In recent memory it has always been West Virginia picking up the most frequest flyer miles in a season. 

This year that changes with new additions as UCF will travel a whopping 14,914-miles this season and the far west outpost in the Big 12, Brigham Young, will cover 12,741-miles, almost exclusively heading east. That puts West Virginia back in third with 10,416-miles to go. Oklahoma State is fourth with 7,551-miles to travel, mostly air with some buses going from airport to hotels and than game sites. 

Bookies.com

Big 12 travel for football season with OSU fourth. 

Arizona State, UCF, and Houston have airports nearby. Iowa State and West Virginia are an hour or further from the nearest airport that can accomodate the United Airlines charter flight the Cowboys take.

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy prefers to stay as close as possible to the game site. He has seen in the past players get sleepy and groggy on bus rides to the stadium and wants to try and get withing 15-to-20 minutes bus ride at the most from a stadium the team plays in on Saturday.

What is interesting is the different locations that Big 12 teams have to navigate. Plus, there are still some campus towns including Stillwater that can be a challenge for hotel accomodations with both enough meeting space and the necessary catering ability to comfortably host a college football team. The schools in major cities are easy with usually multiple hotel options. In the Big 12 Iowa State, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State have visiting teams that stay in other communities. 

No idea on the 2024 Big 12 schedule but you would imagine trips back to Texas schools like TCU, Baylor, and maybe close trips to Kansas and Kansas State could make the travel easier.