FAA’s ground stop causing disruptions in travel to Saturday games

By Field Level Media

Nov 14 (Field Level Media) – A ground stop put into place by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday afternoon is causing travel headaches for college football teams across the nation.

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 FAA listed an effective stop period of 3:54 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET while calling for all flights to be grounded until further notice.

The ground stop made for a hectic time as college football teams tried to reach their destinations.

Among the teams reportedly affected are Arizona State, Baylor, Kansas State and Utah from the Big 12; Minnesota, Purdue and Washington from the Big Ten; Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas in the Southeastern Conference; Colorado State and Oregon State of the Pac-12; UNLV and Wyoming of the Mountain West; and North Texas and Tulane of the American Conference.

Texas was reportedly at the airport in Austin and ready to depart for Saturday’s road game at LSU before deplaning and heading back to campus.

Tennessee’s game is against Texas A&M in College Station, Texas and the Volunteers returned to campus after being unable to leave Knoxville. Ole Miss plays at Oklahoma.

Washington reportedly returned to campus after learning it couldn’t travel to Michigan State.

“Michigan State is in contact with the Big Ten Conference and the University of Washington,” the Spartans said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor the situation and provide relevant updates.”

Minnesota announced it is unable to travel to Penn State on Friday and is in discussions with the Big Ten.

Utah, ranked No. 2 in the country, returned to campus on Friday afternoon. The Utes play at Arizona.

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.

Baylor was unable to leave for its road game at BYU. The Cougars don’t play Sundays due to religious restrictions, which could come into play. Kansas State also was unable to fly for its game at TCU in Fort Worth.

Oregon State plays at Boise State, from where ESPN’s “College GameDay” is slated to broadcast on Saturday morning. ESPN talent such as Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee are in Boise, as evidenced by social media footage. ESPN reported that Oregon State is still hoping to catch a flight as the approximate nine-hour bus trip isn’t easy to plan.

Alabama reportedly boarded a bus to travel to Nashville for its game against Vanderbilt. Auburn reportedly took a bus for its game at Mississippi State, and Purdue did likewise 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 are 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).

College basketball teams also could run into travel issues. NBA and NHL teams who were scheduled to fly after Friday night games could be affected.

(–Field Level Media)