People definitely do that, what is misleading is that it's only a tiny percent of those 100k. Most likely live within 25 miles.

Americans are weird.

For pretty much every European a 1000km round trip is something you do on a special vacation. And you stay for a few days on the other end :D Definitely not something you do on a weekend to go see a sports team.

There are some UK football fans who do that, but they're on a bus and can sleep both ways (usually they don't, they get shitfaced)

There’s nothing quite like college football in the US. :)

https://youtu.be/5py2Ue7LFGY

Just using a drive to Clemson, SC as an example:

Charleston, SC (240 miles, 580 round trip)

Florence, SC (210 miles, 520 rt)

Columbia, SC (132 miles, 262 rt)

Charlotte, NC (134 miles, 268 rt)

Atlanta, GA (121 miles, 242 rt)

People come from all over and this happens all over the country.