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AUSTIN, TEXAS - Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns reacts during the second quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on October 19, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
(Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images) Getty Images One thing that can help a team get off to a nice start is a heavy dose of home cooking.
Several teams have home dates throughout the seasons first month and play five of their first six in the friendly confines.
Louisville, Nebraska, Pitt and USC are such teams with that luxury.
A few teams have it even better with respect to travel, which these days can be daunting given multiple conferences stretch from coast to coast.
Here is a look at teams that have the most favorable travel schedules, or not much of a travel schedule, in the seasons first couple of months and, in a couple of instances, longer.
Michigan has six of first seven at home Kyle Whittinghams first season in Ann Arbor begins with all four September games at the Big House.
Michigan is dishing out $3.4 million in guarantees to UTEP and Western Michigan for part of that pleasure.
The first of four road games is less than a two-hour flight away at Minnesota on October 3, and the Wolverines have a bye the following week.
Penn State and Indiana then visit the second and third Saturdays of October to make it six home games and a bye in the first eight weeks.
For the record, two of Michigans final three games are on the road and may ooze with playoff implications: at Oregon and the annual showdown with Ohio State in Columbus.
TCU has nine games in Lone Star State The Horned Frogs do not exactly have a light" travel schedule to open the season.
Far from it, in fact.
A nine-hour flight out of DFW is nothing to look forward to as they fly to Dublin to play North Carolina in the Aer Lingus Classic on August 29.
However, Sonny Dykes team has a favorable travel schedule thereafter.
A bye Labor Day weekend to recuperate is followed by a pair of home games.
TCU then closes September with its Big 12 opener in Orlando against UCF for the only other trip outside the Lone Star State until the first weekend of November.
That trip takes the Frogs to Tucson for a Friday evening game with Arizona for their second and final domestic encounter outside the Texas borders.
Other road games are at Baylor and Texas Tech.
Texas leaves central time zone once Seven teams visit Austin in 2026 , including Ohio State in what will be a heavyweight encounter September 12.
In addition, Steve Sarkisians squad will not travel outside the state for the annual clash with Oklahoma in Big D and a Thanksgiving weekend date with Texas A&M in College Station.
Hence, the Longhorns leave the state only three times in 2026 and only one of those games, at Tennessee on September 26, will take them beyond the central time zone.
In fact, the date with Vols marks the only matchup in the seasons first two months (eight games) that the Hook Ems leave Texas.
November is a different story when UT has three of its four true road games, including at Missouri and at LSU the first two weeks of the month before the aforementioned regular season finale in Aggieland.
UTSA does not leave state until October 24 Like the Longhorns, the Roadrunners leave Texas only three times and the central time zone once in 2026.
In fact, Jeff Traylors team does not leave the state until its eighth game, and that is only a 500-mile flight to New Orleans to meet Tulane on October 24.
True, three of the first seven are on the road, though a 200-mile trip to Houston to play Rice is the farthest.
The only time UTSA leaves the central time zone is a trip to Florida to meet FAU on a Thursday evening, November 5.
That follows the game against the Green Wave making for consecutive American Conference road dates, though with a bye in between.
West Virginia has one true road game in first seven weeks Mountaineers fans will not have to take the country roads out of town much during the first half of Rich Rodriguezs second season back in Morgantown.
After all, there is only one true road game among the first seven on a schedule that also includes five matchups at Mountaineer Field, something that can aid in returning to the postseason following a 4-8 showing in 2025.
The only true road date is at Iowa State on October 3, which takes place two weeks after WVU faces Virginia in Charlotte on September 19.
It will be the first meeting between the Mountaineers and Cavaliers since the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl (48-22 Virginia), which was also in Charlotte.
It will be the first regular season matchup since 1985 (27-7 WVU) when Don Nehlen and George Welsh were on the respective sidelines on a November afternoon in Charlottesville.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com.