Last Saturday, after Creighton defeated Evansville to advance to the MVC Tournament final, a couple of friends texted me and asked if I was going to make a last minute trip to St. Louis. I kind of blew it off at the time. I didn’t really want to drive down there in the middle of the night by myself and turn around and drive back, plus we had a lot of family things going on that kept me here in Omaha in the first place.
But then after my wife joked with me about making the trip down, I started thinking about it. After taking the kids to The Lorax movie like other families with kids did last weekend, I thought maybe I could fly down to St. Louis and then maybe see if I could get a ride back to Omaha with the White & Blue Review crew that was already down there. After searching some different places to get a ticket, there wasn’t much out there that would get me there before the game much less cheaply.
Then I found a flight on Southwest that was leaving first thing in the morning on Sunday and had me there before most Creighton fans were waking up after the night before. So for $160, I got the flight I wanted. Thanks to Otter and Panon, I was able to get a ticket with them at the game. The rest is history. Although it was a long day and an even longer night, it was well worth the last minute trip.
As Creighton fans now gear up for the NCAA Tournament, others will be scrambling like I did last weekend to follow the Bluejays. With gas prices continuing to rise and others looking for last minute plane tickets, it could be interesting to see how many will be able to follow along. Some will go at any cost.
From a driving standpoint, it isn’t like any of the 2nd/3rd round sites are a nearby drive. Although Omaha is hosting one of those pods, Creighton can’t play there. Albuquerque, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Portland, Columbus, Greensboro, and Nashville aren’t easy trips by road.
As a result, many will look to fly to these different destinations. So where is Creighton going? While it is not a guarantee, since Omaha is a host site that plays on Friday and Sunday the first weekend, it may be likely that Creighton could get assigned to a host that has games on Thursday and Saturday. That would mean Albuquerque, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Louisville would be in the mix. But that doesn’t mean that the other locations are out.
When planning your trip, you would probably want to plan it so you get in the night before since Creighton could be playing games as early as 11 a.m. Central time. You would like to assume also that Creighton will advance to the next round. If that is the case, you could get lucky and get a late flight after the 3rd round game, but you may wait until the next day.
So to help you plan what you might need to spend, we did a little searching for flights to these different destinations as of Thursday afternoon to see what to expect. These are the best prices we could find using several different combinations of leaving on Wednesday or Thursday and returning either Sunday or Monday.
Flying to NCAA Tournament
| Location | Best Deal | Southwest Available? |
|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque, NM | $591 | Yes |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $475 | Yes |
| Portland, OR | $620 | Yes-best deal |
| Louisville, KY | $458 | Yes |
| Columbus, OH | $400 | Yes |
| Greensboro, NC | $506 | No |
| Nashville, TN | $502 | Yes |
*Note we also included whether Southwest flies to these locations from Omaha since you can usually get some good rates from them directly.
Tickets to the Games
Once you get there, you’ll need a ticket to Creighton’s game(s). Omaha’s pod is sold out. Fortunately, many of the other locations still have tickets available that you can purchase directly from the NCAA and not secondary brokers like Stub Hub.
To purchase the tickets directly you can go here.
If you can’t get tickets through the above means, it likely means you may have to pay more to get tickets through the secondary market. Open your wallets again.
For the secondary market, the NCAA recommends going here to buy tickets.
Now, all of this is based on if you are coming from Omaha. With the Jays in the NCAA Tournament and Creighton alumni all over the nation, there will be others who will come out and support CU from other areas around the country. Either way, it should be fun to finally return to the NCAA Tournament no matter how you follow.