A nationwide FAA ground stop on Friday caused significant travel disruptions for college football programs, forcing teams to scramble ahead of weekend games.
The “FAA grounding of all flights” had a unique impact on the sport, as it occurred just one day before several major matchups, according to ClutchPoints.
Utah, currently ranked No. 2, was forced to postpone its scheduled flight to Arizona for their upcoming game, as noted in reports from “Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.”
Other programs, including Kansas State, Arizona State, and Baylor, had prepared contingency plans to depart on Saturday morning if the aviation issues remained unresolved.
The logistical chaos led to over 4,000 flight cancellations and 40,000 delays across the country, as reported by the FAA and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
Secretary Duffy attributed the massive outage to old equipment being overloaded by an upgrade, which caused “instability among air traffic control and radar”, per the New York Times.
While the ground stop has since been lifted, the situation forced some teams to seek alternative travel arrangements.
For instance, Purdue opted to travel by bus to Iowa City to ensure they would arrive in time for their game against Iowa, as “reported by ClutchPoints.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed concerns regarding the cause of the disruption, stating there was no evidence of a cyberattack, though he noted that the department is not ruling out that possibility at this time.
The Big 12 conference had initially issued a statement regarding the potential for rescheduling games, but the situation stabilized before further drastic measures were required.
As the college football season nears the playoffs, the timing of these travel hurdles has added pressure to teams already navigating critical late-season schedules.