Auburn-Mississippi State moved back due to FAA ground stop; Ole Miss reportedly won’t fly to Oklahoma on Friday night
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Auburn’s Week 11 game at Mississippi State was one of the many college football games on Saturday that had to be moved around as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop shut down air traffic around the country for several hours and made several traveling teams adjust.
One of those teams was Auburn, which reportedly chose to bus to the game in Starkville that was originally set to kick off at noon ET. But despite the Tigers choosing a different route to get to the game in Starkville, it didn’t prevent the matchup from having to be moved back by 4 hours and 15 minutes.
So, instead of the noon ET start, the SEC announced on Friday night that “due to travel issues related to Friday’s FAA ground stoppage,” the Auburn-Mississippi State game will be moved to a 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff at Davis Wade Stadium.
The switch in kickoff time made TV have to scramble, too, as it will for several games around the country that have to be moved around. The Auburn-Mississippi State game at its new start time was termed a “TBA” for the television network to go with it, and so that’s just another moving part that will have to be determined.
But what has been determined is that the Tigers and Bulldogs will still play a game on Saturday. Fans will just have to wait another 4 hours or so to see it or watch it unfold.
While Auburn and Mississippi State found a new time to play on the same day, the Ole Miss matchup at Oklahoma isn’t as simple.
The Rebels and Sooners were supposed to kick off at 4:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network on Saturday, but that is in serious jeopardy amid a Friday night report from CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello that said the Rebels “will not fly to Oklahoma tonight.”
An Ole Miss spokesperson told CBS Sports that “we are continuing to work through our options and coordinate with the appropriate groups regarding both travel and the game.”
With the Rebels reportedly not flying out on Friday night for the game in Norman on Saturday, it obviously puts the original kickoff time and maybe even the game itself happening on Saturday in some serious jeopardy.
Ole Miss was hardly alone, as one of several teams around the country that had to shuffle and reshape their travel plans in reaction to the FAA ground stop.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
