49ers to Lead NFL in Travel Miles in 2015

In this Monday edition of Niners Daily, we bring you a pair of eye-grabbing national headlines with local appeal. Up in the Air Hello, frequent-flyer miles. Over at CBS Sports, John Breech recently put together a list of every NFL team's 2015 travel itinerary in terms of total round-trip miles. And guess which team topped all others? No, not any of the six clubs playing in London. The answer is the San Francisco 49ers, who will fly an estimated 27,998 miles this fall. For perspective, that number is 5,116 miles more than Philadelphia, Washington and Indianapolis will travel combined. Because the 49ers play on the West Coast, it's not entirely surprising that they lead the league in travel. It's worth noting, however, that the team's itinerary could be cut by a few thousand miles if it decides to stay in Youngstown, Ohio between consecutive road games in Chicago and Cleveland. Two of the 49ers rivals also rank near the top of the list, as the Seattle Seahawks are fourth (25,086) and the Arizona Cardinals are sixth (23,652). San Francisco also owned the toughest travel schedule in 2013, a year in which the team beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in London before advancing all the way to the NFC Championship game. According to Grantland.com, teams that travel 2,000 miles or more for a road trip win 39.9 percent of their games. The 49ers will play in four such contests this season: Pittsburgh, New York, Cleveland and Detroit. Chicago is just under the 2,000-mile mark.College Scene After Super Bowl 50 in February, the Bay Area may not have to wait long to host another premiere football event. Levi's® Stadium has submitted bids to land college football's National Championship game in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The dates of the games will be Jan. 8, 2018; Jan. 7, 2019; and Jan. 13, 2020 – all of which are Mondays. The 49ers home stadium played host to three college football games in its inagural season last year, including the Pac-12 Championship game and the Foster Farms Bowl. Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Detroit and New Orleans are among the other cities competing to host the games. The winning bids will be announced this fall.