The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights in the United States on Friday due to extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns.
The agency cited a “temporary communications outage” as the primary driver for the nationwide stop, according to Yahoo Sports.
With no clear timeline for when operations might resume, numerous college football teams scheduled to play away games this weekend are currently stranded at their home locations.
The Big Ten conference confirmed that multiple programs are facing significant travel delays.
According to “Minnesota, Purdue, and Washington are all affected” by the federal order, Front Office Sports reported.
Specific matchups impacted include Michigan playing at Penn State, Purdue traveling to face Iowa, and Washington scheduled to visit Michigan State.
While the ACC indicated that all of its football teams have already arrived at their respective sites, other programs remain grounded.
Oregon State has yet to depart for its game in Boise, which is slated to host ESPN’s College Gameday, as noted by “Oregon State has yet to depart to Boise” on social media.
The disruption extends beyond the gridiron to other collegiate sports.
The University of Southern California women’s basketball team announced via “they are grounded in Los Angeles” as they attempt to travel for a Sunday game against South Carolina, the team stated.
Aviation tracking data from “thousands of flights within and out of the United States” are currently impacted by the outage, per FlightAware.
Athletic conferences are now scrambling to adjust their logistics for the weekend.
The Mountain West conference told Front Office Sports that “we are in the process of gathering information” regarding their traveling teams.
This event marks the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, which was triggered by a failure in a pilot notification system.
Historically, such widespread aviation halts are rare, with the most notable previous instance occurring after the September 11 attacks in 2001.