Kansas State’s football team was unable to depart Manhattan as planned Friday afternoon after the Federal Aviation Administration halted flights nationwide. The travel disruption came ahead of the Wildcats’ scheduled Saturday game at TCU, with kickoff set for 1 p.m. It remained unclear whether the delay would affect the start of that matchup.
Program officials told KCTV5 that the Wildcats had been scheduled to leave Manhattan at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Their flight could not take off as planned during an afternoon in which the nationwide stoppage affected several college football programs preparing for games the following day.
Communications problems at regional air traffic control centers prompted the FAA to ground flights across the country Friday afternoon. The agency’s notice cited safety concerns and extraordinary circumstances as the reasons for imposing the restriction. The stoppage was lifted around 8:15 p.m. Friday night, but the source report did not establish when Kansas State would depart.
The disruption extended beyond Kansas State. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that four Big 12 teams were affected by Friday’s travel problems, including the Wildcats. Across the power four conferences, 10 teams were impacted, according to Thamel’s reporting, placing Kansas State among multiple programs facing travel difficulties before Saturday’s games.
Kansas and Missouri avoided delays to their own flights. Officials from both football programs said their trips proceeded as scheduled, with Kansas traveling to West Virginia and Missouri heading to Georgia for Saturday games. Both teams had landed before the ground stop affected travel, allowing them to reach their destinations ahead of the nationwide disruption.
Even so, Kansas’ Saturday schedule changed because of travel problems involving another team. The Jayhawks’ game against West Virginia was moved to 2:30 p.m. Saturday because Arizona State could not fly to Orlando for its matchup against UCF. Kansas therefore faced a revised kickoff despite completing its own trip as planned.
Thamel also noted that game officials could be a factor in Saturday’s schedule because they generally fly to their destinations the day before a game. With the FAA restriction lifted Friday night, the effect of Kansas State’s delayed departure on its scheduled kickoff at TCU was still uncertain.
