College football programs across the country were scrambling to reach their weekend destinations Friday, Nov. 13, after the Federal Aviation Administration halted flights nationwide because of communications problems at regional air traffic control centers. The disruption left multiple Power 4 teams waiting to depart and prompted others to arrange bus transportation.
Nine teams from three Power 4 conferences were still awaiting departure Friday: Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State from the Big 12; Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas from the SEC; and Minnesota and Washington from the Big Ten. The ACC told ESPN that every visiting team in its conference had reached its destination for Saturday's games before the flight stoppage began.
Arizona State players got off their plane and planned to return home to rest before flying to Orlando on Saturday morning, sources told ESPN. Their game against UCF was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The Big 12 said it was considering possible adjustments to Saturday's football schedule while tracking the travel problems.
Several prominent matchups could be affected by the delays. No. 8 Tennessee was scheduled to visit Texas A&M at 3 p.m. ET, while No. 6 Texas was due to play at No. 21 LSU at 7:30 p.m. ET. No. 2 Utah's road game against No. 23 Arizona also had a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
The disruption extended beyond those conferences. Oregon State had not departed for Idaho ahead of its Saturday game at No. 24 Boise State, scheduled for 6 p.m. ET, ESPN confirmed. Wyoming, which was traveling to UTEP, and Colorado State were also grounded. Colorado State players held a walk-through at Northern Colorado Regional Airport while waiting to fly to Pullman for Saturday night's game at Washington State.
Some programs turned to road travel. Tulane planned to board five buses Friday night for the 350-mile journey to Houston to face Rice. Purdue took buses after a delayed flight disrupted its trip to Iowa City for a game against No. 15 Iowa, sources told ESPN. Auburn was taking buses to Mississippi State after its flight to Starkville was delayed, and North Texas made the same transportation change for its game against UTSA in San Antonio.
Georgia also faced a travel complication despite playing at home. Coach Kirby Smart told "The Paul Finebaum Show" that assistant coaches who had been recruiting Friday needed to return for the top-ranked Bulldogs' 3:30 p.m. ET game against No. 22 Missouri. Missouri had already arrived in Athens. Smart also raised concerns about whether teams and officials would reach their games.
Officiating assignments presented another potential problem because officials generally fly in the day before games. A Big Ten spokesperson told ESPN that officials for all eight conference games Saturday were already on-site. A separate source said some officials assigned to ACC games were grounded, although that conference could use seven-person crews if necessary.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a telecommunications outage was affecting the regional centers that guide aircraft between airports, and FAA technicians were investigating. The agency cited safety and extraordinary circumstances in ordering the stoppage. It was the first nationwide ground stop since an FAA computer system malfunction in January 2023; the previous one followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Homeland Security secretary said there was no indication yet that nefarious acts were behind the communications problem.
