FAA grounds flights nationwide, disrupting NBA, NHL and college football travel for the weekend
The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to ground all flights nationwide for several hours Friday threw the sports world into chaos, leaving NBA, NHL and college teams scrambling to reach their destinations in time for games this weekend.
Transportation officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications issues at regional air traffic control centers for the stoppage. It left some teams searching for hotel rooms, others rescheduling flights, leagues adjusting start times, and some teams even took the extraordinary step of chartering buses rather than waiting for the ground stop to end.
“We're going to allow for general aviation, those larger movements, to take place as a priority. Smaller movements will take lower priority,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said after the ground stop was lifted Friday night in Washington.
No. 19 Mississippi’s football game at Oklahoma was moved from Saturday to Sunday at 1 p.m. EST. Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny was upset with the decision, saying the Southeastern Conference threatened Oklahoma with a forfeit if it did not agree to it.
“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny said in a statement. “Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution or to Sooner nation."
Most college football teams playing Saturday travel the day before their game, and the stoppage left many schools — including No. 2 Utah, No. 8 Texas and No. 9 Tennessee — at a standstill as they were departing for road games. The Utes played at No. 22 Arizona, the Longhorns visited No. 24 LSU and the Vols were traveling to Texas A&M in three of the bigger games of the weekend.
“The Southeastern Conference is aware of the FAA's nationwide ground stop and the potential impact on team travel,” the league said. "The safety and well-being of student-athletes, coaches and team personnel remain our highest priority.”
Texas and Tennessee both returned to their campuses during the ground stoppage. Once it was lifted following more than four hours of uncertainty, the schools began making plans to fly out as soon as possible, allowing them to arrive before game day.
Auburn opted to take a bus to Mississippi State with the SEC pushing back the Saturday start time from noon EST to 4:15 p.m. to give the Tigers a little buffer. Purdue likewise decided to board buses from West Lafayette, Indiana, for its game at Iowa.
Other schools affected by the stoppage included Baylor, Washington, Kansas State, Minnesota and Arizona State.
The Big 12 said the Kansas-West Virginia game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EST would be moved up to 3:30 p.m. since the Jayhawks had arrived in plenty of time. That allowed the league to shift the Arizona State-UCF game from 2:30 p.m. EST to 5:30 p.m., giving the Sun Devils an additional three hours after their flight from Arizona to Florida was delayed.
Washington spokesman Kurt Svoboda said the Huskies returned to campus when their flight was grounded, but officials stayed in touch with their airline partners and the flight crew remained in place. The Huskies ultimately flew out late Friday for their game at Michigan State on Saturday, which was starting at 5:30 p.m. EST — 75 minutes later than originally scheduled.
It was unclear whether any referees, who typically fly to their assignments the day before games, would have trouble reaching their games. The Big Ten said in a statement that all of its officials had arrived for their scheduled assignments Saturday.
Several teams were able to take off before the stoppage began Friday afternoon, including all of those traveling in the Atlantic Coast Conference; Missouri, which was flying to No. 1 Georgia; Duke, which was visiting fifth-ranked Miami; and No. 10 Texas Tech, which posted on social media images of its arrival for a game at Oklahoma State.
NFL teams playing Sunday typically travel the day before games. They were expected to fly as planned on Saturday, though the league said it was adjusting travel assignments for its officials, reassigning some of them to within driving distance of their hometowns.
In the NBA, the Cavaliers played in Miami on Friday night but didn't fly home until Saturday morning, leaving them about eight hours after landing before they played a home game against the Mavericks. Cleveland had to scramble to get its hotel rooms re-booked after having checked out earlier in the day.
Teams rarely fly in on gameday, but there have been some circumstances — often weather-related — when it has happened.
At least two other NBA teams had Friday night flights pushed to Saturday morning, but those teams weren't playing Saturday night.
“It’s part of it. You just adapt,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said.
There were 14 scheduled NHL games Saturday. The Panthers were among the majority that made it to their destinations before the stoppage. The Sharks, who were left waiting in San Jose to see whether they would be able to travel, reached Utah later Friday.
JuJu Watkins and her third-ranked Southern California teammates were trying to get to South Carolina for their game Sunday against the top-ranked Gamecocks. The team had just boarded its flight at Los Angeles International Airport when the stop was issued, and it returned to the Galen Center with plans made to fly out Saturday instead.
In soccer, the Utah Royals were in the Washington, D.C., area ahead of their National Women's Soccer League semifinal against the Washington Spirit on Saturday. But the Kansas City Current were supposed to leave Friday for their semifinal match against Gotham FC.
The Current were training in Kansas City on Saturday with plans to travel to New York later in the day.
The U.S. national team's match against Haiti on Saturday in Miami was unaffected by the ground stop. Both teams and officials already were in town for the first leg of the two-match CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal series.
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AP Sports Writers Jim Vertuno, Aaron Beard, Tim Reynolds, Larry Lage and Beth Harris contributed to this report.
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