FAA ground stop moves Mississippi-Oklahoma game to Sunday and disrupts team travel

Mississippi’s college football game at Oklahoma has been moved from Saturday to Sunday at 1pm ET after a nationwide flight stoppage disrupted travel across US sports. The Guardian reported that Friday’s Federal Aviation Administration ground stop left college teams, NBA clubs and other sports organisations changing flights, finding accommodation and revising plans for the weekend.

Transportation officials attributed the stoppage to communications problems at regional air traffic control centres, according to the report. It was lifted on Friday night after more than four hours of uncertainty. Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny objected to the rescheduling of the Mississippi game, saying the Southeastern Conference had threatened Oklahoma with a forfeit unless it accepted the change. The SEC said the safety and welfare of athletes, coaches and team personnel were its priority.

Other college football teams switched to road transport. Auburn chose to travel by bus to Mississippi State, with Saturday’s kickoff delayed from noon ET to 4.15pm to allow more time for the journey to Starkville. Purdue also opted for a bus trip to Iowa. Texas and Tennessee returned to campus during the stoppage, then began arranging departures after flights were allowed to resume.

The disruption also produced changes elsewhere in the schedule. Arizona State’s game at UCF was pushed from 2.30pm ET to 5.30pm after the Sun Devils’ flight from Arizona to Florida was delayed. The Big 12 moved Kansas-West Virginia forward from 5.30pm ET to 3.30pm, with Kansas already at its destination. Washington eventually departed late on Friday for Michigan State, where kickoff was delayed by 75 minutes to 5.30pm ET.

In the NBA, Cleveland’s return from Miami was postponed until Saturday morning after its Friday night game. The Cavaliers were scheduled to land approximately eight hours before hosting Dallas, and had to find hotel rooms after checking out earlier on Friday. The Guardian reported that at least two other NBA teams also had overnight travel pushed into Saturday morning, although neither was due to play that evening.

Some competitions avoided further disruption because participants had already arrived. The Big Ten said all its officials were in place for Saturday’s assignments. The San Jose Sharks reached Utah late on Friday ahead of an NHL Saturday schedule featuring 14 games. In soccer, the US men’s match against Haiti in Miami remained unaffected because both teams and the match officials were already there.