Conference Realignment Could Mean More Travel For Oklahoma Big 12 Fans

Dana Hertneky, News 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma – Although nothing has been decided, all the Big 12 Conference talk seems to point that OU would go to the Pac-12.

It would be a seismic shift in college conferences with OU heading west.

"That's more travel time for both west coast players and OU players whenever they have to travel," said one OU student on campus Monday.

That's more travel for fans too.

Currently in the Big 12 all the games are within driving distance. Not so in the Pac-12.

"All their away games would be a flight away and it would be at least a three to four hour flight away," said Angela Hedges Hendricks of Bentley Hedges Travel.

And a pretty costly plane ticket as well. At Bentley Hedges Travel they pulled current prices for some of the Pac-12 schools. A plane ticket would cost $578 dollars to Seattle, $548 to Portland, $478 to Los Angeles.

"You're looking at at least $500 to $600 dollars in airfare per person and at least $200 dollars a night for your hotel and then transportation from the airport to the hotel to the game and then your game ticket," Hedges said.

And paying all that green would likely mean less Crimson in the stands for away games.

"I think they may just stay home and watch it on television," Hedges said.

The folks at Bentley Hedges say they would charter planes for some of the bigger games and that would keep costs down still it's clearly going to be more than a couple hours drive.

9/19/2011 Related Story: OU Board Of Regents Gives David Boren Power To Change Conferences.