In Reply to: On the flip side, road games will be tougher for UCLA. posted by BruinNCs on April 11, 2024 at 13:22:54
i remember studies of game outcomes in football that found that teams traveling west to games did 1.5 points per game on average better than they did when traveling east to games. (Thus a huge disadvantage for U Hawai'i teams and now for UCLA, SC, OR and WA teams.)
Going west you gain time to help compensate for the travel; going east you not only lose time but you step off the plane and it seems you've lost more hours than just the travel time - plus you have fewer hours to recover via sleep overnight. For my work while living in DC we'd have trips to Hawai'i - 10 hours flying bus time to airport and transfer planes on the west coast and then to hotel upon getting there but when you did arrive, it was still sunny. Going the other way if you get a daytime flight you arrive and it's already night (or you take the red eye - and, as a person who doesn't sleep on airplanes, not my first choice to do - ever. Anyway, that's twice as long. flying (and one additional airport) more than our teams will have to deal with but the point is it's easier to travel west and play than it is to travel the same distance east. Just is.