A ground stop put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday afternoon caused travel headaches for college football teams nationwide, prompting game-time changes for many contests and at least one game-day change.
According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, the FAA issued “a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”
The ground stop began at 3:54 p.m. ET and was lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET, disrupting departures for more than four hours.
The ground stop made for a hectic time as college football teams tried to reach their destinations.
The most significant schedule change came early Saturday morning when the Southeastern Conference announced that Ole Miss’ game at Oklahoma had been postponed until Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
The SEC posted on social media, “The Ole Miss football team was unable to depart Oxford Friday night due to the FAA ground stoppage. After the stoppage was lifted, a late-night departure could not be accommodated by the charter company with which Ole Miss was contracted and the team’s departure has been delayed until Saturday afternoon.”
GAME UPDATE:
The @OleMissFB at @OU_Football game has been moved to Sunday, Nov. 15 at 1 PM ET / Noon CT due to travel issues related to Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stoppage.
Television network is TBA.
#SECFB
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) November 14, 2026
Also in the SEC, Auburn switched to bus transportation for its game at Mississippi State, which was delayed from noon to 4:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The Big 12 was forced to adjust numerous game times.
Utah, ranked No. 2 in the country, returned to campus on Friday afternoon. The Utes will fly on Saturday morning to Tucson, Ariz., where their matchup was delayed three hours to 10:30 p.m. ET.
Arizona State sat on its plane hoping to travel to Orlando to play UCF before changing plans. The Sun Devils now plan to fly Saturday morning, according to ESPN, for a game that was pushed back two hours to 5:30 p.m. ET.
Kansas at West Virginia was shifted ahead to fill the 3:30 p.m. ET time slot.
Washington planned to travel to East Lansing, Mich., late Friday for its game at Michigan State, which was pushed back 75 minutes to 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Outside of the power conferences, Tulane’s game at Rice will have a 2 1/2-hour delay to 4:30 p.m. ET, and Florida Atlantic’s matchup at Tulsa was moved from 3:30 p.m. ET to 7:15 p.m. ET.
Baylor initially couldn’t leave for its road game against No. 10 BYU, and the contest was shifted back 3 1/2 hours to 7 p.m. ET.
Oregon State plays at Boise State, where ESPN’s “College GameDay” is scheduled to broadcast Saturday morning. ESPN talent such as Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee were in Boise, as evidenced by social media footage. ESPN reported that Oregon State was still hoping to catch a flight as the approximate nine-hour bus trip wasn’t easy to plan.
Alabama reportedly boarded a bus to travel to Nashville for its game against Vanderbilt. Purdue reportedly took a bus for its game at Iowa. North Texas boarded buses for its game at UTSA in San Antonio.
Among schools that reportedly made it to their destinations shortly before the ground stop were Southern California (at Indiana), Kansas (at West Virginia), Duke (at Miami), Northwestern (at Ohio State), Wake Forest (at SMU), Missouri (at Georgia) and South Carolina (at Arkansas).
–Field Level Media
