A certain segment of America saw its travel plans, even those already in progress, come to a screeching halt this past weekend.
On Saturday, Spirit Airlines ceased all flight operations, causing upheaval across the airline industry and affecting thousands of passengers and airline employees.
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“To our Guests: all flights have been canceled, and customer service is no longer available,” the company said in a statement.
The death of the budget airline operator is another signal of rapidly changing times in travel and the economy in America. Southwest Airlines, another former budget airline operator, recently pivoted to keep up with the likes of Delta, United and American Airlines. Southwest’s changes include eliminating its biggest brand markers—free checked bags and open seating—in hopes of increasing customer spend and elevating the brand’s prestige.
Add to oil prices’ wartime high of more than $120 a barrel, driving up fuel costs for both planes and automobiles, and travel has likely never felt so painful on the wallet, especially for many college athletics programs in the state of Texas.
“Oil doesn’t show up as an ESPN headline, but it quietly changes how football programs move,” Prairie View football general manager Christopher “Cruize” Williams told Chron.
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Chron spoke to six spokespeople—athletic directors, general managers and head coaches—across the state to better understand how shifts in the airline industry affect their programs.
“Those costs add up quickly.”
Many athletic programs tapped Spirit or Southwest to ferry potential recruits to and from campus and get teams to away games across the country. Spirit’s one-way flights routinely cost less than $100, making the now-defunct airline an attractive option for smaller sports programs looking to nab a recruit.
“In football, those costs add up quickly because you are moving a large roster, staff and equipment while also managing recruiting travel and other program responsibilities,” Williams said. “It forces administrators and coaches to be more strategic with budgeting, scheduling, and resource allocation.”
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Moving luggage and equipment is nearly as vital as getting the players and coaches to their final destination for teams. Southwest’s radical shift put many schools’ brand loyalty to the test.
“We used to do Southwest almost exclusively for team travel due to the free baggage, but now that they have changed their stuff, we have utilized the other airlines more often this year,” said a spokesperson of a FBS school in Texas.
“We use Southwest, American or Frontier,” said Vincent D. Robinson, Huston-Tillotson’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
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“For baseball, we primarily use Southwest or United with the occasional American when we have no other option,” said Rice’s head of athletic communications, Chuck Pool.
Many of the top programs in the state, most notably Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech, are so well-funded that dealing with the likes of Spirit or Southwest is never even in consideration. According to Sportico, the Aggies spend nearly $1 million in charter flights just for their football team each season.
In addition, the Southeastern Conference’s partnership with Southwest helps funnel more funds to schools like Texas and Texas A&M, along with additional perks associated with the airline.
Even smaller, but still well-resourced, programs rarely dip their toes into budget airline land.
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“In five years of travel with baseball, we’ve never flown Spirit,” Pool said of Rice, which competes in the American Athletic Conference. “We charter for football and quite a bit of basketball.”
“We feel it.”
The power dynamics at play in travel accommodations for student-athletes are notable. Every school that can fly Delta or United for a recruiting visit rather than Southwest or Frontier, another budget airline, could make the difference in landing a recruit.
For some programs, increased travel costs or unique geographies also mean making business decisions to ensure logistics or the balance sheet works.
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“Recruiting flights are almost exclusively into McAllen, [which is] about 20 minutes from Edinburg campus,” said Jonah Goldberg, University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley’s athletic director of communications. The Vaqueros completed their first season in FCS football in 2025.
“We usually use Southwest…during the recruiting process, they don’t typically check a bag but rather carry it on,” said Ryan Pratt, head coach of Houston Christian’s men’s soccer team. “We will still use Southwest, will probably have the guys carry on their bags and check as few bags as possible to keep prices at a minimum.”
“Each team has to account for those travel increases on their own,” said a spokesperson of a Group of 6 school in Texas. “Could be not purchasing a uniform, or maybe less team meals out of season, or a number of things.”
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College sports have never been more of an arms race than they are now. With broadcast television rights exploding and the demands of funding NIL for top athletes ever-present, those with the deepest pockets seem poised to move further ahead. For programs in Texas outside the power conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC), recalibrating the travel budget has become another stressor in running a successful program.
“We may not always say ‘oil prices’ directly, but we feel it through higher travel expenses tied to buses, flights, rental vehicles, and overall logistics,” Williams said of Prairie View’s football team, which happens to be the defending SWAC champions. “It may not always be a headline issue, it is absolutely something that affects football operations behind the scenes.”

Original Source: https://www.chron.com/sports/college/article/spirit-southwest-texas-college-sports-22240401.php