United States of America Travel Forum

Hi my VT friends.
Once again I need your help on my upcoming road trip. I am 1 of about 9 Americans who don’t follow college football. I will be driving through the Football region in September & October. For greater flexibility, my plans specifically exclude making hotel/motel reservations in advance. I’m not interested in the Big Game between the local Hatfields & McCoys but I need info on room availability during football season. How many days in advance do the fans book? Do they stay in town after the game to replay the highlights in a local pub and relive their own glory days? If the game is a Sat. which days might be easier for me to book? Am I overestimating a potential problem, or is it no problem at all?
Thanks again, Irv

I am not at all interested in american football or baseball. but recently I had to pass through Omaha Nebraska and they were having some National or International (how can they call domestic matches international when i dont see any teams from Libya participating?).. The good people at AVIS rent a car as well as the Hotel advised me that for ten days all rates would be doubled and that it would be difficult to get a car or a room in Omaha. so if you are going through the football belt or when there is the season, it is better to check.. especially in foot ball crazy midwestern states.. good luck..

I did not go to a football school, but when my oldest son was 12 I took him on a business trip with me to State College Pennsylvania on a Thursday and Friday. That Saturday Penn State was playing Michigan. We had to stay in Harrisburg which was over 60 miles away and then on the Saturday morning we snaked through the mountains totally in fog for over 2 hours and got to the game just in time. (First and only time I have ever bought scalpted tickets). So from that experience GOOD LUCK!

As previous poster had mentioned even if you can get close, the hotel rates will be increased and you may even have to book multiple nights even if you want only one night.

We stayed for dinner in State College that night after the game (the visitors Michigan won) and had to wait about 1 hour for a table where the fans were indeed hashing through the days game.

Where exactly are you going? There are some schools in more urban areas (i.e., Pittsburgh) where the hotels won't be affected at all.

In smaller towns like Morgantown, W.Va. (Go Mountaineers!), it depends on the game. Sometimes if the game isn't a particularly fierce rival, no one comes back. One year I more people the weekend of the Notre Dame game than I did our actual homecoming.

This might be a really good time to book your hotel on something like Hotels.com, since they might not be going on local customs, but a regular price plan.

Just curious, why have you decided to take your roadtrip through College Football Mania country during football season if you aren't a fan?

Sorry, I saw more recent graduates the weekend of the ND game... I had a really good time that weekend, got a little distracted thinking about it!

It's precisely because I'm not a college football fan that it never occurred to me that it might be a problem in rooms or rates. I can probably time my arrival at a college town for after game day. Would that help? Are prices high only before a home game? Can all midwest colleges please hold off playing until I pass thru or finally reach the safety of eastern PA?

What towns do you plan on staying in? I'm from western PA, and I do like football, so I can give you a general idea of how ferocious certain towns are going to be, football wise.

For example, there are a ton of schools that are part of state's school system in PA, but I don't think you'd have a problem because of football unless it was that particular town's homecoming weekend.

But if you go anywhere near The Ohio State University, you'll probably have a problem!

Having put 4 kids through college here is one other thing I would check before you go through any college town on a weekend. Check the college or universities web site and see if there are any other major events happening in the college town that weekend. For example my 2 oldest sons went to Indiana University and in the month of April they have a bicycle race called the Little 500 that draws in people from all around and makes hotel rooms scarce.

But, if you plan to be in town after the football game (Sunday through Wednesday) I wouldn't think you would have a problem in most university towns.

That's true... there could be something like Parents' weekend or something.

Why don't you check out the calendars for the schools you're going to be near, and go when they have away games? That's usually easier to figure out than which games are going to draw the most people.

Not counting the "no man's land" at or between some of the Nat'l Parks, these are a few of the potential Footbal Towns we'll be visiting or staying overnight. Cleveland, South Bend, Madison, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cinn, and Columbus. I love the idea of checking the town's calendar as I plan the trip. You guys are all great!

I wouldn't worry about Cleveland, Denver, St. Louis or Cincinnati -- those cities all have enough to do without college football.

Madison -- the only time I've heard of it is either the bridges of the county, or the college, so that would be worth checking; definitely Columbus, and I'll have to go back and check the other cities. I was outside in the heat today and it tends to fry my brain a little.

Kansas City: Safe.

South Bend: Definitely check, and pack some green for holy protection anyway!

"I wouldn't worry about Cleveland, Denver, St. Louis or Cincinnati -- those cities all have enough to do without college football. "

True but the college football season is also pro football season and Cinci has both. Getting rooms for 9 without reservations...

Strong DI College teams and Pro Football fans book WAY in advance. It's an expensive ticket to risk wasting for want of a room so yeah, I see a potential problem.

My thought is that using internet to check bookings a day or two in advance probably wouldn't hurt flexibility too much. Laptop and cafe or local library should work out there.

Sorry you're not a football fan. I'll sometimes actually plan a trip around Friday's high school football. Smaller communities really show their colors on high school football night, particularly around Penn and Ohio. Anywhere along that border, you're going to find some tremendous opportunities. It's also a great time for harvest festivals.

At the college level, smaller universities like Shippensburg in Penn, Ashland in Ohio... have great traditions and are near some nice tourist sights/towns and you can see the community at the local game.

You actually will have more difficulty in towns between the larger cities. Along I-70 you will have Manhattan, Kansas (Kansas State) and Lawrence, Kansas (University of Kansas). Those are both fairly small towns, so hotels there on a football weekend could be a problem. For the University of Missouri, they play Illinois,in St. Louis, on September 5th. That game will draw a lot of people, who will often stay the entire weekend. The Missouri campus is in Columbia, also located along I-70. They will have home games on September 12th and 19th. They play Nebraska on October 8th. If you don't like football, you don't want to be anywhere near Columbia for that weekend. It's pretty doubtful you could find a place to stay anyway. Gary

A potential problem in St.Louis could also be baseball, as the Cardinals have a possibility of being in the playoffs the first part of October. Gary

South Bend, Madison, and Columbus could all be problematic if the local teams (Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Ohio State) are playing home games. People coming in to attend the games will generally stay only for Friday and Saturday nights. Hotel rooms for football weekends tend to get booked weeks or months in advance for game weekends, especially in the smaller college towns. Also look out for college move-in and graduation weekends, which can also be hotel nightmares. If you want to look up college football schedules, foxsports.com is pretty user-friendly. The schedules are under the NCAA Football section of the website. In general, you only have to worry about football weekends in towns with Division 1 teams (large universities). Football weekends at smaller universities and colleges (Division 2 and Division 3) tend to be much more low-key.

Just an aside, be careful driving around the college towns on the weekends. College students aren't exactly famous for sobriety, although for the most part, schools tend to have transportation available for the partiers.

I don't know if I've given you this web site previously, but you might wish to check it out for events, festivals, etc: (www.whatsonwhen.com). It's a world wide site, so it might be useful as well. The newspapers for most large cities now also have web sites. These can be a good source of information on special events as well. For St. Louis, two good web sites: (1) www.explorestlouis.com, (2) www.thenewi64.org. Gary