Your college team may have battled its way into a top bowl game, but are its fans die-hard enough to fly in for the match-up?
As 10 college teams across the U.S. gear up for the top tier of Bowl Championship Series games, we decided to look at another stat here at Cheapflights.com: fan loyalty! We compared flight searches on our site to find out which schools had the most fans hoping to cheer on their teams in person by traveling to the season's final games.
We checked out flight searches* along routes from airports near the 10 schools set to play in top bowl games to the cities that will play host to these match-ups. Thus, answering the travel question: Which school's football fans will travel for their teams?
Here's how fans' flight searches measured up:
1. Michigan StateFlight searches to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.: Up 406 percent
2. AuburnFlight searches to the Vizio BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, Calif.: Up 395 percent
3.Florida StateFlight searches to the Vizio BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, Calif.: Up 378 percent
4. OklahomaFlight searches to the AllState Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La.: Up 306 percent
5. University of Central FloridaFlight searches to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.: Up 175 percent
6. BaylorFlight searches to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.: Up 116 percent
7. ClemsonFlight searches to the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla.: Up 67 percent
8. Ohio StateFlight searches to the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla.: Up 64 percent
9. AlabamaFlight searches to the AllState Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La.: Down 32 percent
10. StanfordFlight searches to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.: Down 33 percent
*To gather these numbers, we looked at relative increases in flight searches on Cheapflights.com overnight Sunday, Dec. 6-7, versus the same 48-hour period the week prior.