Ole Miss and Oklahoma will wait an extra day to kick off their SEC matchup after a travel snag pushed the game from Saturday to Sunday, Nov. 15.
The No. 17 Rebels, sitting at 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the SEC, are now set to play at Oklahoma at noon Sunday.
The Sooners enter at 5-4 and 3-3. The SEC announced the change shortly after midnight on Nov. 14 and said the television network for the game had not yet been set.
The matchup had originally been slotted for 3:15 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network, but Ole Miss ran into trouble getting out of town.
The team’s planned Nov. 13 flight to Oklahoma was affected by the FAA’s nationwide ground stop order, which started around 3 p.m. and was lifted about 7:30 p.m. Even after that restriction ended, Ole Miss said it still would not be able to leave that night.
“The Ole Miss football team was unable to depart Oxford Friday night due to the FAA ground stoppage,” the statement said. “After the stoppage was lifted, a late-night departure could not be accommodated by the charter company with which Ole Miss was contracted and the team’s departure has been delayed until Saturday afternoon.
Ole Miss flies out of Tupelo, and the trip to Oklahoma City takes about 90 minutes. Under normal circumstances, the Rebels usually get to the stadium about three hours before kickoff.
The schedule shift also lines up with a manageable stretch for Ole Miss, which is coming off a short week and then faces Wofford on Nov. 21.
This is not the Rebels’ first Sunday game of the season. They also played on Sunday in Week 1 against Louisville, opening the year with a Sept. 6 win.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny made clear he was unhappy with the decision, posting a statement on X at 12:12 a.m. on Nov. 14.
He said, in part, “Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution, or to Sooner Nation. But we’ve been given no other choice.”
Denny said Oklahoma understood the unusual circumstances and had already been in contact with Ole Miss and SEC leadership. He added that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made the call to move the game and told Oklahoma that if it did not play Sunday, the result would be a forfeit.
“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny said in the statement. “But those decisions must also consider the impact on everyone involved.
Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution, or to Sooner Nation. But we’ve been given no other choice.
We are obligated to play the game when directed, but we remain steadfast in our belief that the wrong outcome was reached this evening.”
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