FAA Ground Stop Pushes Ole Miss-Oklahoma to Sunday

BMBuck Mahoney · Old school · Nov 14 at 10:01 AM

Let me tell you something. A flight shutdown can scramble a football weekend, but the decision about what to do next can make the harder contest. The Ole Miss Oklahoma game could not go ahead as planned after Ole Miss failed to reach Norman in time for Saturday. The SEC moved it to Sunday, and Sooners athletic director Roger Denny objected in unusually sharp terms. The conference set kickoff for 1 p.m. Eastern Sunday, a full day later than scheduled, after the Rebels’ charter could not depart Oxford on Friday night. The SEC’s announcement gave the travel problem as the reason for the move.

The disruption began Friday afternoon, when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop after communication problems affected multiple air traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the trouble to overloaded switches and routers that began sending unreliable information. Airlines logged widespread delays and cancellations until regulators ended the restriction at 7:15 p.m. Central, more than four hours after it began. The reports described it as only the third full ground stop in the country’s history. College teams that had expected to fly Friday were suddenly trying to preserve Saturday games, a problem also tracked in coverage of the wider college-football travel scramble.

Ole Miss players and staff returned to the football facility while the program waited for word on travel. Once the stoppage ended, the team’s charter company could not provide a late-night departure. Ole Miss administrators could not secure a replacement charter from Tupelo to Oklahoma City that would get the Rebels there in time; reports put the earliest new flight they could book at 4:20 p.m. Saturday. Another account cited crew duty limits as part of the difficulty, while the SEC’s explanation was that the contracted charter could not accommodate a late departure. The team planned to leave Saturday afternoon, too late for the original game time.

The SEC announcement listed the original kickoff as 4:15 p.m. Eastern; another report gave the scheduled time as 3:15 p.m. Central. The revised start is 1 p.m. Eastern Sunday, or noon Central. Broadcasters had not announced television plans for the Sunday game. The Rebels, ranked No. 19, entered at 6-3 after a 42-7 loss to Georgia. Oklahoma was 5-4 and coming off a 23-7 win at Florida. The Sooners need one more win for bowl eligibility.

Denny said Oklahoma wanted to keep the game on Saturday, including if the kickoff had to be pushed later. He said the school communicated with Ole Miss and the league after learning of the travel trouble, and that Commissioner Greg Sankey ultimately ordered the Sunday date over Oklahoma’s objection. Denny also said Sankey told the Sooners that refusing to play at the designated time would mean a forfeit. That is Denny’s account of the conference’s ultimatum; the SEC’s public explanation described the flight problem and the rescheduling, without addressing his account in the material provided. Denny’s dispute with the league centered not only on the date but on how the decision was reached.

Denny argued that Ole Miss had failed to find a way to travel when other teams managed to reach their destinations. That comparison sharpened the dispute, but it does not by itself establish that the Rebels had a workable charter or crew available. The reports say different teams faced different travel circumstances. Tennessee rescheduled a flight for its trip to Texas A&M; Auburn left its airport and took buses to Mississippi State, and the league shifted that game’s kickoff; and Texas boarded a flight after 10 p.m. Central for its Saturday game at LSU. Organizers pushed Utah’s game at Arizona to 10:30 p.m. Eastern. Other games around the country also had kickoff adjustments. Reports identified the Ole Miss-Oklahoma game as the only FBS matchup moved from Saturday to Sunday.

Denny focused on the people who had planned around a Saturday game in Norman: fans with travel, lodging and personal arrangements. He called the change unfair to Oklahoma’s athletes, institution and supporters, and said the school would play as directed while maintaining that the wrong decision had been made. The conference’s choice settled the immediate scheduling question, but it did not settle the argument over whether the Rebels had exhausted their options or whether Oklahoma received enough consideration. Earlier reporting on the possible travel impact had already put the matchup under the shadow of the FAA disruption.

The league also moved the Auburn-Mississippi State kickoff later on Saturday. Other travel-related changes included the Utah-Arizona start, while teams including Tennessee and Texas still reached their Saturday destinations after delays. Auburn’s change was among the adjustments affecting SEC programs, alongside the revised Auburn-Mississippi State schedule. For Ole Miss and Oklahoma, the next step is now the Sunday game in Norman, with Oklahoma’s objection and the disputed account of the forfeit warning part of the story surrounding it.

For my part, the travel problem was real, and so was the cost of changing plans for fans. The hardest question is whether the conference had a Saturday option that was genuinely workable; these reports do not resolve it. The teams will play Sunday, but the argument over fairness is still hanging around the kickoff.