When UCLA and USC joined the Big Ten a lot of questions were posed about how the two California-based programs were going to be able to make everything work logistically. After all, prior to their additions, the furthest western team in the Big Ten is the University of Nebraska.
UCLA in 2024 drew Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, and USC are all at home but will travel to face Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Rutgers. In 2025, they’ll host Maryland, Purdue, Rutgers, and Wisconsin but travel to Illinois, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, and USC.
Their conference schedule is already enough of a journey. But when you add in the Bruins’ 2024 non-conference schedule, their travel schedule and the miles that they would total over the course of the season become quite intense.
So far for the 2024 season, we know UCLA will travel to Hawaii on August 31, and host Fresno State on September 14 before traveling to LSU on September 21. Then there is their conference schedule discussed above – trips to Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Rutgers.
With the help of Google Maps, we found a general estimate of how many miles UCLA will travel for each away game in 2024. The results are below;
Hawaii: 2,570 miles
LSU: 1,829 miles
Indiana: 2,078 miles
Iowa: 1,800 miles
Michigan: 2,260 miles
Rutgers: 2,781 miles
Total: 13,318
Of course, traveling just isn’t one way. Once you account for the return trip, the Bruins are easily racking up over 26,000 miles, nearly pushing 27,000 miles. Depending on if they make a bowl game and where that bowl game is located, they may easily clear the 27,000 mark on the season in 2024.
Hopefully, UCLA can get their players signed up with their airliner and get some air miles out of the season – it may be as rewarding as an NIL deal at that point considering how much traveling Chip Kelly’s program will be doing.
However, before UCLA has to worry about the 2024 season, they’ll look to finish their time in the Pac-12 off on a strong note. They are currently set to open up their 2023 season on September 2 against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.