I’m sorry I couldn’t think of a more specific title for the topic, but here’s my question. Last Friday afternoon, Miami Air (flight 621-B738) flew the Arkansas football team charter from KXNA to KBHM. Apparently they deplaned the team at KBHM, and several hours later appeared to have deadheaded to KTCL where they waited until Saturday night for a return flight with the team from KTCL to KXNA. Why would they deplane in KBHM, but depart from KTCL? Why not deplane and depart from KTCL? Rwy length at KTCL is 6499 x 150. Thanks.
That could be the decision made by Coach Nutt. For “security” purposes, coaches will have their teams fly into a different city than they are playing. A few years ago, when Tulsa played at West Virginia, Tulsa stayed in Pittsburg, had their walkthrough at Pitt Stadium, then they bussed the day of the game to Morgantown, WV. Can’t tell you where we departed from. It was late and I was asleep.
Anyway, it is a common practice.
The team stayed in Birmingham, and so it’s logical that they deplaned there. They bussed over to Tuscalossa for the game, and then departed Tuscalossa afterwards. 'Makes perfect sense! 
Tuscaloosa is a relatively small town, approx 80,000+/-, and there aren’t many “nicer” places to stay. B’ham has a choice of large hotels and is only a 30-45min. drive down the interstate. Plus, you probably want to keep the Arkansas players seperated from the T-town crowds as much as possible!
“Small college towns” such as Tuscaloosa, Morgantown, Norman, OK, Stillwater, OK are usually tough to find hotel rooms in also. Granted, most of the Big-12 teams that play in Norman or Stillwater will fly in the day of the game (if it is a night game), or they stay in OKC. In Tulsa’s case, when they played TCU or SMU, they would stay by DFW (same hotel the Cowboys use). The coaches typically want the team away from all distractions that can occur. Again, doing what Arkansas did is not uncommon.
In fact, this past weekend, the BYU football team got into Tulsa around 5:30ish, then stayed at a hotel, literally, on the opposite end of town by Oral Roberts Univerisity (home of the big bronze hands).
Add Wazzu (Pullman, WA) to that list. Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID (home to Univ of Idaho) are 8 miles apart with the airport (KPUW) in the middle. Despite several new hotels added in the past few years, there are never enough rooms for a game weekend.