Think your Thanksgiving weekend travels were bad? Odds are they weren't nearly as awful as the ones the Nicholls State football team just had to endure.
According to reps for the school, the entire squad -- plus a bunch of staff members -- were stranded at a tiny airport in Illinois for nearly 24 hours with limited food and water ... all this after it lost its FCS playoff game.
The 6-5 Colonels were in Carbondale, Ill. on Saturday for the first round of the FCS postseason ... and after they got blown out by Southern Illinois, 35-0, they headed to Veterans Airport in Marion to catch a ride home.