Hundreds of Spartan fans, alumni, marching band members, and cheerleaders boarded charter flights from Lansing to Dallas on Tuesday, heading to the Cotton Bowl.
Terminals at the Capital Region International Airport looked more like fans zones, covered in green and white as passengers waited for their flights.
"Bowl games are unbelievable. It's pretty cool to just go on a trip every year now," said Spartan Marching Band Junior Pujan Bhattarai.
It's becoming a routine trip Bhattarai who's going to his third straight bowl game.
"Sometimes it's kind of, I question you know 'why am I in this band? We practice so much', but at the end it's unbelievable and we get such a great experience and we're very lucky to do it," Bhattarai added.
His band mates agree the experience is worth all the extra work. This year members say the excitement is even bigger since there's the possibility of a run at the Championship game.
"You hear Coach Dantonio talking about reaching higher and now we're in the college football playoffs which didn't exist two years ago," said Andrew Keiser Senior Tumpet Section Leader. "It's just exciting to see the team keep achieving and that we're along for the ride is just fantastic."
Scott Westerman, Executive Director of MSU's Alumni Association, says that excitement is helping Michigan State both on and off the field.
"It raises all boats. We're having a great time with donations to the university now and our admissions requests are up," Westerman added. "It's just a wonderful time to be a Spartan."
The celebrations started thanks to the weather's cooperation, letting Tuesday's flights take off on time.
"A lot of folks that rolled their own on Detroit last night did not get out and there are no flights available to Dallas for the next 48 hours," Westerman said. "If you toured with MSU you're going to get to the game."
Now fans are hoping the next big celebration will be after the game.
"I think we can win for sure, lots of doubters but I think we can do it," Bhattarai added.
