The Big Ten Conference and its football teams have given fans plenty to cheer about in its first year with four new members from the West Coast. Although the University of Michigan didn’t defend its 2023 national championship, the 2024 College Football Playoff saw an intense competition, culminating in Ohio State defeating Notre Dame to win the first-ever 12-team playoff national championship. The University of Oregon, one of the Big Ten’s newest members, secured the No. 1 seed but fell to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, while Penn State and Indiana also earned playoff berths, showcasing the conference’s depth.
But as the competition and excitement grow to new levels, so too do the carbon emissions from the teams traveling across the country to play each other.
According to a new report from the U-M Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS), the Big Ten’s 2024 expansion will more than double the average conference game emissions for the U-M football team. That’s compared with emissions from 2010 to 2023.
The CSS study also found that the same is true for the average emissions from opponents with the increased distances traveled to play at the Big House in Ann Arbor.
Squad sustainability goals
Co-authors Paige Greenberg and Molly Russell, both graduate students at U-M, took on the project after being inspired, in part, by reporting on the sustainability of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
They found that the Big Ten’s expansions would multiply U-M’s average per game emissions by a factor of 2.3 and their opponents’ by a factor of 2.6.
They also found the combined emissions from U-M and their opponents for the 2024 regular season would be more than 350,000 kilograms, or almost 400 tons, of carbon dioxide. That is equivalent to driving a small internal-combustion SUV around the Earth’s equator over 33 times.While that is a relatively small slice of total emissions from the university, let alone college sports, CSS argues that reducing U-M’s carbon footprint as the Big Ten’s geographic footprint grows is still important, especially as the university works toward carbon neutrality.
Geoff Lewis and Shoshannah Lenski, CSS staff members and advisors on the study, serve on an internal advisory council for U-M’s Scope 3 Emissions Project, which is working to reduce the university’s emissions from indirect sources such as travel and purchasing. U-M is planning to establish Scope 3 goals in 2025 and then begin implementing reduction efforts.
Taking care of home field
Although the report was prompted by the expansion of the Big Ten, one of its most surprising findings involved U-M’s out-of-conference opponents. The analysis revealed large fluctuations in these emissions—between about 60,000 and 275,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide—depending on where the opponents travelled from. Michigan rarely travels for nonconference games, so a substantial portion of travel-related emissions fall on visiting teams. In 2016, for example, Michigan’s first three opponents were the University of Hawaii, University of Central Florida and University of Colorado; those three games accounted for more than 60% of the combined season emissions for U-M and its opponents.
Seeing the emissions data in this light brings forward questions that the university can consider as it works to reduce indirect emissions. Scheduling decisions play a role in determining the carbon footprint of the football program, and discussions about how these emissions are shared between schools could shape future sustainability initiatives.
The CSS report raises the question of how the University of Michigan, as the “Leaders and Best,” can continue to demonstrate leadership in sustainability while maintaining its rich football traditions. Michigan fans are passionate about Wolverine football, and balancing that love for the game with a commitment to sustainability will require thoughtful planning and innovation in the years ahead.
Access and download the report here: https://css.umich.edu/publications/research-publications/tackling-emissions-analyzing-football-travel-emissions-big-ten
This article was originally published on University of Michigan News and is revised for publication on this website with permission: https://news.umich.edu/big-ten-expansion-will-double-carbon-emissions-from-u-m-football-team/
About the Center for Sustainable Systems:
For more than 30 years, the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan has pioneered systems science to accelerate real-world solutions for sustainability challenges across systems of energy, mobility, the built environment, food, water, and consumer goods. CSS researchers have published more than 1,000 scientific studies, many in collaboration with partners across industry, government, and communities. CSS’s mission is to advance systems science for climate action and a sustainable society.
CGLR’s business and sustainability network programming is supported by the Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation.
