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Lincoln Riley describes the changes to travel USC has made since joining Big Ten

Barkley-Truaxby: Barkley Truax09/11/25BarkleyTruax
USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches from the sidelines against the Missouri State Bears in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley watches from the sidelines against the Missouri State Bears in the first half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

USC will travel over 2,100 miles to play Purdue on Saturday for the Trojans’ Week 3 conference opener. The cross-country trip has become something the program has gotten used to since joining the Big Ten.

To combat these elongated road trips, USC head coach Lincoln Riley revealed that the Trojans have made some travel upgrades ahead of the 2025 season. Additionally, there will be some changes to their day-to-day schedule while on the road as well.

“We’ve changed the type of airplane that we’re in,” Riley revealed after practice on Tuesday. “It’s a little different when you have an hour and a half or an hour and 45 minutes flight, especially with the size of some of these guys. Then all of a sudden you’re on these planes for four, four and a half hours and then you get ready to go play a game with the time change and things like that.

“Again, we’ve made a couple of changes in the schedule with timing of eating … while we haven’t had to change anything drastically from a sleep standpoint. There’s a couple of things throughout the week in there — it all fits. It’s kind of like a puzzle, one piece affects another.”

In 2024, the Trojans were forced to travel over 12,000 miles during USC’s first season in the Big Ten. The conference quite literally spans from coast to coast across the continental United States. They ended up having to play on the road against the likes of Michigan, Minnesota and Maryland last season.

For comfort’s sake, it appears that the Trojans have adapted to this new travel schedule during the season. Although, USC will only travel 7,298 miles during the 2025 regular season.

This includes Saturday’s game against the Boilermakers, as well as road trips to Illinois, Notre Dame (non-conference) and Nebraska. After the Nov. 1 matchup against the Cornhuskers, USC won’t leave the west coast again unless they make a bowl game or better.

Teams like USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington being in the Big Ten, as well as Stanford in the ACC, among others, stem from the collapse of the Pac-12 after the 2023 season. In turn, geography is no longer what conference alignment is based on.

For the Trojans, multiple time-zone-skipping plane rides will be the norm moving forward. In year two, USC has made it a point for emphasize comfortability while maintaining a strict schedule on the road. They’ll hope their investments translate to a win on Saturday against the Boilermakers.