Illinois Football: Illini looking at short travel distance in 2023

While Big Ten games are always tough, at least Illinois football doesn’t have to travel too far to compete against some of the best teams in the conference.

Last season, the Illini had one of the best campaigns in the last 20 years. Winning eight games hadn’t happened since the Ron Zook era, and he was only able to accomplish this feat once.

While this winning was taking place, Illinois saw decent success in Big Ten road games. We played five road games in 2022 and managed to finish with a record of 3-2 and nearly nipped a top-five Michigan squad.

Illinois didn’t have to travel very far for these road games either. When your longest trip is a bus ride out to Nebraska, you know you have it pretty good. Despite the travel length not being nearly as short as 2022, the Illini still won’t travel too far in 2023.

Illinois football has one of the shortest travel distances in the Big Ten in 2023

Heading into the 2023 campaign, the Illini are poised for another great year. It helps that we don’t play Ohio State and Michigan this season. That will be a nice break. I also believe our travel distance for road games will be a benefit.

For road games this season, Illinois will travel a total of 3,373 linear miles. While that might sound like a lot, it is actually the 10th most in the Big Ten. There are only four teams – Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa – that have a shorter travel distance for games this season.

The longest trip for Illinois this season, in linear miles, is going to be Maryland. The Illini travel to take on the Terrapins on October 14. Round-trip, this will be a 1,226.34-mile journey.

Which team will travel the most in 2023? That would be the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. They will travel 5,991 linear miles this season. Here is the rest of the list of Big Ten teams and the linear miles they will travel.

• Rutgers – 5,991 miles
• Minnesota – 5,279 miles
• Maryland – 5,251 miles
• Wisconsin – 4,705 miles
• Nebraska – 4,565 miles
• Northwestern – 4,089 miles
• Michigan – 3,960 miles
• Michigan State – 3,905 miles
• Penn State – 3,526 miles
• Illinois – 3,373 miles
• Ohio State – 3,248 miles
• Purdue – 2,994 miles
• Indiana – 2,949 miles
• Iowa – 2,882 miles

The Illini will play five out of the top six teams in linear miles traveled this season. Here is to hoping jet lag is a thing for those programs.