Penn State's James Franklin says State College airport limitations create travel issues for trip to USC

Penn State coach James Franklin is lobbying for more runway to get his program off the ground as the Nittany Lions navigate life in an expanded Big Ten.

Literally.

With the No. 4 Nittany Lions headed west for a Saturday showdown at USC on CBS, Franklin explained this week that his team is leaving Thursday, in part, because of the logistical challenges presented by the 2,500 mile trip.

"A big part of us leaving on Thursday is we cannot fly out of State College," Franklin said. "So that was a big part of our discussions with the Big Ten when all this thing got started is not only are we one of the most northeast schools, but 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."

Instead of leaving from the State College Regional Airport via a smaller aircraft that would require Penn State to make a refueling stop, the Nittany Lions are making the roughy 90-minute drive to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in order to fly out of an airport that can accommodate larger aircraft.

Franklin's preferred solution would be to extend the runway at State College's airport, which is located just 10 minutes from Penn State's Beaver Stadium.

"To me, that's one of the things I think we have to discuss is 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, and for us, now that we've decided to make this move as a Big Ten," Franklin said.

The bus trip to the airport, combined with the cross-country flight, will make for a long travel day for Penn State. Franklin is right to be concerned about the logistical challenge as Big Ten teams traveling two or more time zones away for games are 1-7 this season.

"To me, that's something that we need to do for a lot of different reasons, but that that's a big part of it is you're talking about adding another two hours to your trip on top of the flight, and I think the flight's already five-and-a-half hours or whatever it may be, so that's pretty much a full day," Franklin said. "That's one of the big reasons for leaving Thursday."

The Issue won't be going away any time soon. Penn State is scheduled to play at UCLA in 2025, at Washington in 2026, at Oregon in 2027 and at USC in 2028.