<p>The coaches should provide letters for the professors. There may also be a student-athlete resource center with study halls and tutoring available to help student-athletes make the most of their limited time.</p>
<p>The team wants to make sure that they are settled in, well rested, acclimated, etc. Spending three hours on a bus the day of the game is not considered a great way to be 100%, and these schools take football very seriously. Imagine the school losing a game that would have qualified them for a bowl (with the revenue that goes with that) because the players were not feeling well after eating lunch on a long bus trip with their muscles cramped up and then the bus got delayed and they were almost late. </p>
<p>I was in a non-revenue sport that nobody cared about and we always did travel the day before. We’d practice at the facility to familiarize ourselves with it and have time to be prepared and focused.</p>