Best road trips: Week 1, West

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Thursday, Sept. 5: Loras at Elmhurst
Friday, Sept. 6: St. John's at UW-River Falls
Saturday, Sept. 7: UW-Eau Claire at St. Thomas
Saturday, Sept. 7: Macalester at Crown

Next: Week 1-East



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This itinerary starts with the other Thursday night game of Week 1, with Loras at Elmhurst. You might not get to see the full effect of how much losing that huge 2012 senior class hurts Elmhurst but you'll probably see a lot of Gagliardi Trophy winner Scottie Williams' younger brother, Josh, in the Bluejays backfield. From there you get most of your driving out of the way on Friday before seeing St. John's at UW-River Falls. Here you can see first-hand the Johnnies post-John Gagliardi. From there it's a short drive to an afternoon game Saturday featuring UW-Eau Claire at St. Thomas. The Saturday night game is another short drive to see Macalester at Crown. It should be an evenly matched game and help you see the wide disparity between a team ranked No. 2 and a team in the 200 range, but the other big attraction is that Crown is opening a brand-new stadium.

If seeing a Stagg Bowl team isn't for you on Saturday, you could instead catch a game at Hamline, St. Olaf or Martin Luther. But the Crown game is the only night game in Minnesota, so don't stray far. And the River Falls game is the only Friday game in the Central Time Zone.

Total: Four games, 444 miles start to finish.

Next: Week 1-East