A nationwide halt to air traffic on Friday left several college football teams stranded or delayed on the eve of one of the season’s most important Saturdays, forcing some programs onto buses and others into last-minute travel changes. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the ground stop after communications failures at regional air traffic control centers, which direct planes between airports across the country. By Friday evening, nine Power 4 teams still had not reached the sites of their weekend games.
Four Big 12 teams were affected: Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State. Three SEC programs, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas, were also waiting to depart, along with Big Ten members Minnesota and Washington. The ACC said all of its visiting teams landed before the order was issued. Arizona State’s players had already boarded their plane when the stop took effect. The team got off, returned home to rest and now plans to fly to Orlando on Saturday morning for its 3:30 p.m. ET game against UCF, sources told ESPN.
Other Teams
The disruption reached beyond the Power 4. Oregon State had not left for Idaho, where it is scheduled to face No. 24 Boise State at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. Wyoming was also aboard a flight that was grounded. Several marquee games could feel the effects. Among them are No. 8 Tennessee at Texas A&M, No. 6 Texas at No. 21 LSU, and No. 2 Utah at No. 23 Arizona. The Vols and Longhorns were among the teams still waiting to depart, while Utah was on the Big 12 list of delayed travelers.
Some programs stopped waiting on the airlines. Purdue, set to fly to Iowa City to face No. 15 Iowa, switched to buses after its flight was delayed. Auburn did the same for its trip to Starkville, Mississippi, to play Mississippi State. North Texas also chose the road for its game at UTSA in San Antonio.
Georgia, ranked No. 1 and hosting No. 22 Missouri at 3:30 p.m. ET, had a different problem. Coach Kirby Smart said on “The Paul Finebaum Show” that several of his assistant coaches were out recruiting Friday and needed to get back to Athens in time. Missouri had already arrived in town. Smart said the situation had coaches and staff glued to their phones. “The text thread is popping,” he said, adding that he was wondering how officials and some grounded teams would reach their destinations. He also joked that regional conferences would let teams simply drive to games.
How Does This Affect Officials?
Officiating crews were another concern. Referees typically travel the day before games, so a prolonged halt could have left some crews unable to reach their assignments. The Big Ten said its officials for all eight of Saturday’s games were already on site. A source told ESPN that some officials assigned to ACC games were grounded, but the league could use seven-person crews if necessary. The NFL has reassigned crews to within driving distance to their home base on Sunday.
The FAA said it issued the ground stop because of “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a telecommunications outage was affecting the regional centers and that FAA technicians were investigating. The Homeland Security secretary said there was no indication of foul play. The stoppage was the first of its kind nationwide since January 2023, when a malfunction in a key FAA computer system halted flights. Before that, the last nationwide stop came after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
For college football, the timing was especially awkward. Week 11 features a heavy slate of ranked matchups with major conference and playoff implications. Teams normally rely on tightly planned itineraries, with players arriving a day ahead to settle in, hold walk-throughs and sleep in their own hotel beds. A late arrival or an overnight bus ride cuts into that preparation.
A Friendly Disagreement
The college football fallout reached Norman, Oklahoma, where the Ole Miss-Oklahoma game was moved from 4:15 p.m. ET Saturday to 1 p.m. ET Sunday. The SEC said the Rebels couldn’t leave Oxford on Friday night because of the stoppage, and once flights resumed, their charter company couldn’t accommodate a late-night departure, pushing the team’s travel to Saturday afternoon.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny said the school objected strongly, and that Commissioner Greg Sankey told the Sooners that failing to play at the new time would mean a forfeit. Denny said the decision “isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution, or to Sooner Nation,” and argued that fans who had planned travel and lodging around a Saturday game now face unnecessary hardship. Even so, Oklahoma said it will comply and play as directed, while maintaining that the conference reached the wrong outcome.
End Of My College Football Rant: Scramble Succsessful
With the college football slate set for the weekend, look to see if any teams or broadcast crews are affected on the field by this chaotic situation. For now, a scramble by officials and teams did the job, and play will resume with college football today.
