Penn State’s Week 11 game against Minnesota ran into an unexpected travel snag Friday when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop that left the Golden Gophers stuck.
According to Pete Thamel and Mark Schlabach of ESPN, the FAA put the stop in place around 4 p.m. ET because of “communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.”
Minnesota was among the teams caught in the mess. The Golden Gophers, who entered the weekend 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big Ten, had been set to leave at 2:30 p.m. on a Sun Country Airlines flight, but the plane never got off the ground.
The FAA lifted the restriction about four hours later, but that did not immediately solve Minnesota’s problem. As of 7:30 p.m. ET, Jamie Lynch of Onward State reported that the Gophers still had not settled on a travel plan for Saturday’s trip to Happy Valley.
“The University of Minnesota football was on its charter flight about to depart for Penn State when the FAA nationwide ground stoppage went into affect,” Minnesota Senior Associate Athletic Director Paul Rovnak reportedly told Onward State.
“As a result, the Gophers were unable to travel to Penn State on Friday for Saturday’s game. Minnesota has been in communication with the Big Ten and Penn State and will provide relevant updates as necessary."
Kickoff for Saturday, Nov. 13 was scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at Beaver Stadium, and there were no updates as of 10:00 p.m. ET on whether that start time would be pushed back.
The ripple effect went beyond Minnesota. Thamel noted on social media that several other teams were also dealing with flight issues, including Big 12 teams Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State; SEC teams Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas; all visiting ACC teams on the ground; Big Ten teams Minnesota, Purdue and Washington; plus Oregon State, Wyoming and North Texas.
Even after the ground stop was lifted, the travel backup was not going to disappear instantly. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters Friday night that getting everything airborne again would take time, though he said flights with more passengers would get priority, according to Blue White Illustrated.
“Finally, with general aviation. If we have aircraft that’s moving six people, that’s a lower priority.
But this weekend we have movements that have 60, 80, 100 people on those aircraft, we are going to give those aircraft a priority,” Duffy said. “Hopefully tomorrow we’ll see far better movement.”
A Big Ten spokesperson told ESPN that conference officials were already on site for their Week 11 games before the FAA issue hit.
Minnesota wasn’t the only Big Ten team affected. Purdue, which was set to play at No.
15 Iowa, reportedly deplaned and took buses to Iowa City, while Washington expected to resume its initial travel plans later Friday evening. The Huskies’ game at Michigan State did not have a confirmed kickoff time because of the delay; it had originally been scheduled for 4:15 p.m.
ET.
For Minnesota, the bus fallback was never realistic. The drive to Penn State is about 15 hours, which makes a road trip to Happy Valley a nonstarter.
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