Randomly talking to colleague today who went to big 10 school (not part of sports team) and somehow mentioned that when in college and flying to ncaa xc with my small school we would fly commercial (or heck we’d drive if was 8-10 hours away). He was blown away by this and said ‘Guarantee my college xc team flew private to nc’s’….
I guess what do I know but this would shock me. So… is random big 10 team which is finishing 15-25th at nats really chartering a jet?
Yes. My son flew to conference meet on private jet.
Jet Blue for us wrote:
Randomly talking to colleague today who went to big 10 school (not part of sports team) and somehow mentioned that when in college and flying to ncaa xc with my small school we would fly commercial (or heck we’d drive if was 8-10 hours away). He was blown away by this and said ‘Guarantee my college xc team flew private to nc’s’….
I guess what do I know but this would shock me. So… is random big 10 team which is finishing 15-25th at nats really chartering a jet?
No. Didn't happen.
Iowa and Iowa State both fly privately (but obviously did not for regionals) Oklahoma State and SEC and some Pac 12 teams will typically fly privately depending on the meet and how far it is.
Did your ‘small school’ teach English?
Big Boy in the NCAA wrote:
Yes. My son flew to conference meet on private jet.
Why are you afraid to name the school? Wouldn't you want to brag about it?
Sometimes the NCAA will charter a jet for multiple schools as it's cheaper than commercial. I do know that.
POTUS and his full diaper wrote:
Did your ‘small school’ teach English?
Yes - and the last part of the final exam was always ‘ALWAYS PROOF READ YOUR POSTS ON RANDOM MESSAGE BOARDS IN CASE SOMEONE POINTS OUT A RANDOM GRAMMATICAL ERROR’ .
Overall most teams still fly commercial. At the Power 5 level you do see charters , but mainly for conference or NCAA's. It is very common for teams to share charters to help with costs. Plus the location of some meets makes it difficult to fly commercial for large groups. Tallahassee, College Station, and Eugene are examples. Not unusual for Florida, Florida State, & Miami to share a charter to Eugene. The travel allotment from the NCAA for championships does not cover the costs of a charter. Each school has to make up the difference.
Ban them for being rich.
I saw at least 5 B10 schools fly private jets to the conference meet. More may have, I don't know. How is it bragging? It is common practice for P5 schools. That is sort of like saying my son ran 14 minutes at a P5 and you ask me to name him so that I can brag even though 14 minutes is very common. Some of you guys are out of touch with reality.
Service Academies sometimes travel to meets in the back of C-5s or C-130s.
Maybe these days they get a C-21 for National meets, don't know.
There are also cases where an alumni will arrange of their corporate plane. However this is not as common as it was in the past due to liability concerns.
I don't think flying to XC competitions is something new. The Iowa State women had several members die in a crash on their way back from nationals in '85, which was only in Milwaukee that year.
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a25381917/iowa-state-cross-country-plane-crash-memorial/
i assume sometimes a random booster is providing a jet, and it's not being paid for by the school
for example, i randomly saw last week that the UNH mens soccer team flew to an ncaa tournament game in the patriots' jet
I'd be curious to see how the cost of commercial vs private flights compare. Flying private sounds fancy, but I wouldn't be shocked if the cost of chartering a 10-12 person jet is comparable to buying 10-12 commercial plane tickets in many cases.
Looks like the LSU track team flies private to nationals:
Indoor:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMQrEF9l12O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Outdoor:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPzF2HKFHtj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
taking a charter flight isnt really flying private. Its actually cheaper sometimes to fly 100 student athletes in a charter flight then try and book flights on a normal airline.
private flying is hopping on a true gulfstream/luxury jet.
the video posted above of LSU clearly shows them hopping onto a normal airliner simply doing charter flights vs regular commercial.
and yes, I have taken charter flights before. It's really no different inside than flying commercial
If someone can show me a video of a school sending their top 5 xc team to a meet in a legit private jet (not amongst 100 other student athletes on a charter), then I will be impressed
University of Maryland flies charter.
Which is funny because they don't have enough money for a fully funded Men's team and their Woman's team is the worst in the Big 10.
I ran for a perrenial Top 20 team and we drove a bus everywhere.