The Library Media — Sports · Sports Desk
No Kickoff Changes Reported as 14 College Teams Get Caught in the Ground Stop
By Catalina Clarke
Photo: Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Friday is travel day in college football — the day visiting teams fly out for Saturday’s games — and this Friday, the sky closed. The Federal Aviation Administration’s nationwide ground stop, in effect from 3:54 p.m. ET until 8:15 p.m. ET, caught at least 14 college football programs in transit or waiting to board, according to ESPN reporting published by The Hill on Friday night.
The teams caught in it
Four Big 12 schools were impacted, ESPN reported: Baylor University, Kansas State University, the University of Utah, and Arizona State University. Three Big Ten programs were also affected — the University of Minnesota, Purdue University, and the University of Washington — along with the University of Mississippi, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Texas. Four more programs — Oregon State University, Boise State University, the University of North Texas, and the University of Wyoming — were on flights that were either grounded or never left because of the stop, according to ESPN.
The stop grounded every departing flight in the country for more than four hours after what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication of a “nefarious attack.” Nearly 11,000 flights were delayed or canceled, The Guardian reported. The full account is in our main story on the ground stop.
What it means for Saturday
As of Friday night, no school, conference, or the NCAA had announced any change to a kickoff time or a game schedule, and no postponement has been reported. Tonight’s three Friday games were not named in the reporting on affected teams. The disruption, for now, is to preparation rather than to the schedule itself: a team that expected to land Friday afternoon, hold its walkthrough and meetings, and sleep on a normal schedule instead arrives late Friday night — or, on commercial connections, into Saturday — with that routine compressed or lost.
The wider ripple runs through the weekend’s crowds as well. Fans flying to Saturday’s games are moving through the same backed-up system as everyone else, with airlines still working through the delays and cancellations the stop left behind.
The Library Media’s previews for all 31 of Saturday’s Power Four and Notre Dame games are published on our Sports desk. This story will be updated if any program or conference announces a schedule change.
Catalina Clarke
Sports Desk, The Library Media
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