Oklahoma’s Friday ended with a whole lot of uncertainty and no real answer about when the Sooners will actually take the field against Ole Miss.
A rare nationwide ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration halted departing U.S. flights for about four hours on Friday afternoon, throwing college football travel plans into chaos. Ole Miss was among the teams affected, with the Rebels scheduled to face Oklahoma at 3:15 p.m. CT on Saturday in Norman.
Once the ground stop was lifted just before 7:30 p.m., some teams were able to get moving right away. Others had already switched to buses to reach their destinations. Ole Miss, though, remained stuck in limbo.
The Rebels are not leaving Oxford until Saturday, and that has put the Week 11 matchup in question. According to reporting from multiple Ole Miss beat writers, the game is expected to be played Sunday, though nothing has been confirmed. Oklahoma, meanwhile, does not want the game moved off Saturday if it can be avoided.
SoonerScoop’s George Stoia reported that the decision is not really in Oklahoma’s hands and will come down to TV and SEC officials. The game is set for SEC Network, and those officials would likely prefer to keep the schedule intact as much as possible rather than shift the matchup into Sunday afternoon and compete with the NFL for viewers.
Stoia wrote, “Nothing is official yet, by the way. Hopefully soon. But OU doesn’t want this game moved to Sunday if possible.”
Still, the situation has dragged on with no final word. As of late Friday night in Oklahoma, neither team nor the fans had been given a definitive answer, even though the game was only hours away.
There is blame to go around, but Ole Miss is the only team in this spot that has not been able to sort out its travel. Ultimately, though, the bigger issue falls on the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey.
Stoia also reported that Oklahoma players were told to go to bed as if they would wake up on game day, even though there is still doubt about whether that will actually happen. He wrote, “OU players were told to go to bed as if they would wake up on a game day, but there’s doubt if that will actually happen.”
For now, Oklahoma is staying at its team hotel in Norman, and everyone connected to the program - players, fans and stadium workers alike - is heading to sleep without knowing whether the Sooners will play on Saturday.
In Other News...
College GameDay Gave Oklahoma Fans A Wild Twist Amid Ole Miss Chaos
A telecommunications outage that rippled through air traffic control created plenty of headaches around the sport on Saturday, including a ground stop that helped force a change to the Oklahoma-Ole Miss schedule. While the Sooners and Rebels dealt with the fallout, ESPNs College GameDay still went on as planned at Boise State, giving college football fans a live look at how the days travel chaos was affecting the broader landscape.
Pat McAfee turned the disruption into part of the show, arriving on horseback in a nod to the travel problems that had already thrown the morning off course. The bit played well with the Boise State crowd, and it was a reminder that even on a messy day for logistics, GameDay can still find a way to lean into the moment. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Fans Wont Like How This Ole Miss Decision Was Made
A scheduling wrinkle turned into a bigger headache for Oklahoma on Friday, when the SEC moved the Sooners game against Ole Miss from Saturday to Sunday because a nationwide FAA ground stoppage disrupted the Rebels travel plans. The matchup is now set for a noon kickoff, and television coverage has not yet been announced, leaving one more detail hanging over a game that was already drawing plenty of attention.
For Oklahoma, the frustration is less about the delay than the process behind it. The Sooners athletic director objected to the decision, and the leagues stance made the stakes clear: if the game could not be played Sunday, it would be a forfeit. For a conference race that already leaves little margin for error, it is the kind of ruling that can leave one side feeling like it had no real say in the matter. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Blasts SEC Over Disruptive Ole Miss Decision
A chaotic travel day turned into a bigger football headache for Oklahoma when the SEC shifted its game at Ole Miss from Saturday to Sunday after a nationwide FAA groundstop snarled flights across the country. Oklahoma opposed the move, but the league made clear the game had to be played at the rescheduled time, even as Ole Miss dealt with its own travel problems and could not get to the field on time.
For the Sooners, the issue was not just the inconvenience of a one-day delay but the way the decision was handled under pressure. The leagues warning of a forfeit if the game was not played Sunday only sharpened the tension around a matchup already thrown off by circumstances well beyond the teams control, leaving Oklahoma to absorb the disruption and move on to an altered schedule. [Read more 🡒]