USC and UCLA football programs are projected to be among the most well-traveled teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision for the 2026 season, primarily due to their new conference affiliations. USC is set to rank eighth nationally, with an estimated 16,290 round-trip miles for its five road games. UCLA follows closely at 12th, accumulating 13,636 miles for its five away contests.
These figures, calculated by TripBalls, represent straight-line distances between stadium coordinates. USC's road schedule includes matchups against Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, Indiana, and rival UCLA. The Bruins' away games will take them to California, Maryland, Oregon, Minnesota, and Michigan.
Conversely, teams within the Big Ten that are geographically closer will travel significantly less. Rutgers, for instance, is projected to travel only 4,084 miles for its five road trips, ranking 116th nationally. This means USC will travel nearly four times the distance of its conference opponent from New Jersey, where they are scheduled to play on September 19.
The shift in travel distances is a consequence of former Pac-12 members joining the Big Ten Conference. Other former Pac-12 teams also feature prominently in the travel rankings. Stanford, now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, is second with 21,758 miles, while Cal, also in the ACC, ranks sixth with 18,102 miles. Oregon is ninth with 15,968 miles, and Washington is 16th with 12,448 miles.
The team with the most extensive travel nationwide is Hawaii, whose Rainbow Warriors will cover 37,232 round-trip miles for their six away games, requiring air travel for every contest. At the other end of the spectrum, Auburn will travel the least, with 2,188 miles for its road games. Collectively, all FBS teams are expected to travel over 1 million miles across 770 trips during the 2026 season.