Why is Penn State football leaving a day early for USC? It’s about buses and planes

James Franklin wants a bigger airport.

The Penn State football coach used his weekly Monday press conference to tout the need for better cross-country access at the State College Regional Airport ahead of his team’s trip to Southern California.

When asked about travel preparations for Saturday’s Big Ten game at USC, Franklin talked of how his Nittany Lions will leave Thursday from the Harrisburg International Airport for a more time-efficient, direct flight. That still will entail nearly a two-hour team bus ride from State College.

The No. 5 Lions will kick off against USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum at 3:30 p.m. (ET).

The team will leave a day earlier than usual for a road trip to account for about eight hours of travel to California, including busing to Harrisburg, Franklin said. It’s a plan and itinerary that’s been crafted ever since USC joined the Big Ten and 2024 schedules were announced last fall, he said.

Oct 5, 2024; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin walks on the field during a warmup prior to the game against the UCLA Bruins at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images

“We cannot fly out of State College. …. Based on runway length, size of plane, weight of plane, fuel on plane, we can’t get out of here unless we would stop for fuel,” Franklin said.

“To me that’s one of the things we have to discuss, increasing the size of the runway here and the size of the airport, for a lot of reasons. For the university, for the community, for businesses, for the athletic department … now that we’ve decided to (expand) the Big Ten. That’s something we need to do.

“That’s something we need to look at addressing moving forward because it does change things for us compared to a lot of other teams in our conference,” who have the benefit of nearby…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-penn-state-football-leaving-194930103.html

Author : York Daily Record

Publish date : 2024-10-07 19:49:30

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