Penn State Sports Magazine
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5 2 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM S peaking to reporters a few days be- fore leading Penn State on its lon- gest flight ever for a Big Ten road game, James Franklin seemed upbeat until someone brought up the elephant in the economy cabin. "In games that have involved a team making a two-time-zone jump, the visiting team has lost eight," the re- porter said. "Do you think anything could be going into that other than just the long travel?" Franklin frowned. "I was hoping nobody would bring that up," he said. "We're not focused on that or talking about that or concerned about that. We're focused on what we have to do to handle our business." Penn State headed to the West Coast two days ahead of its matchup against USC, leaving enough time for the squad to conduct its "Fast Friday" practice at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The idea, Franklin said, was to keep the game-week routine as close to normal as possible. It must have worked, because even though the Nittany Lions got off to a rough start the next day, falling behind by 14 points at halftime, they looked a lot better on both sides of the ball in the second half and emerged with a rousing 33-30 overtime victory. The Lions were more fortunate than several of their conference brethren. There had been considerable talk during the offseason about the travel burden that Big Ten expansion was about to impose on the conference's athletes, and the first half of the regular season seemed to confirm suspicions that road teams were going to be at an increased disadvantage. Heading into Week 9, vis- iting Big Ten teams that had jumped two or more time zones had gone 5-11. Some skepticism is warranted, of course, given the tiny sample size. And then there's the matter of trying to dis- entangle the effects of long-distance travel from the other factors that influ- ence the outcome of a particular game. Did Michigan lose at Washington because of jet lag or because it has been fielding one of the country's most in- ept passing attacks all year? Did Washington lose at Rutgers because it had to fly 2,500 miles or because it's been prone to foolish pen- alties this season? Did UCLA lose at Penn State because the game kicked off at noon ET, which felt like 9 a.m. to the Bruins' players, or because injured quarterback Ethan Gar- bers watched it in street clothes? Clearly, there were more important factors in play than just the visitors' travel schedules. Still, the Big Ten's early-season results track with the data that's been compiled over the years about the effects of long- distance travel on athletic performance. A 2022 study of NBA games over a 10- year period found that jet lag stemming from eastward travel was associated with worse shooting, fewer rebounds and lower winning percentages. The study encompassed 11,481 games and con- cluded that jet lag "may have significant adverse consequences on performance in the NBA, particularly when recovery time is limited." The "recovery time" in question has to do with the number of days in which athletes are given to adjust to a new time zone before competing. Research shows that the body's circadian rhythms ad- just at a rate of about an hour per day. Ideally, teams traveling from the Eastern to the Pacific Time Zone, or vice versa, would arrive a couple of days early to reorient themselves at their op- ponent's location. Realistically, that is not going to hap- pen. At least not with any regularity. When UCLA visited Penn State, it left Los Angeles on Friday morning and arrived in State College at 4 p.m. for a noon kickoff the next day. The Bruins' quick trip is likely to be representative of future Big Ten travel itineraries. If there's any good news for the Nit- tany Lions in the research, it's that evi- dence indicates westward travel may be less taxing than eastward travel. That's because the human body seems to have a harder time adjusting to days that have been artificially shortened than those that have been artificially length- ened. Anyone who has ever returned from a West Coast trip and spent the next day in a sleep-deprived fog under- stands this concept. When we talk about the effect of travel on college athletes, we are talking about marginal differences in perfor- mance. But a lot of games are won and lost at the margins, so it will be interest- ing to see in the years ahead whether the Big Ten has created a genuine disadvan- tage for its members, particularly those on the periphery of its geographic foot- print: Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. With games at UCLA next year, Washington in 2026, Oregon in 2027 and USC in 2028, the Nittany Lions will have a hand in figuring out what kind of toll, if any, the Big Ten has imposed on its members with its most recent growth spurt. ■ James Franklin led the Nittany Lions to Los Angeles two days ahead of their game against USC. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS Cross-Country Travel May Impose Tolls VARSITY VIEWS