Week 11 of the college football season will now push into Sunday afternoon.
The Southeastern Conference announced early Saturday morning that the football game between the Mississippi Rebels
and Oklahoma Sooners, initially scheduled for a 3:15 p.m. local time kick Saturday in Norman, will now go off at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 15 (noon local). A television network for the game has not yet been determined, the SEC said.The reason for the move, the SEC said, is travel issues for the Ole Miss football team tied to Friday's nationwide FAA ground stoppage that threw air travel across the country into chaos. The Rebels fly out of Tupelo, per the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.
"The Ole Miss football team was unable to depart Oxford Friday
night due to the FAA ground stoppage. 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," the SEC said in statement.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny expressed his frustrations with the situation in a lengthy statement:
"We recognize the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the ground stoppage and understand the challenges they created for teams across the country. As soon as we learned of Ole Miss' travel issues, we immediately began communicating with their staff and our conference leadership. We were told that Ole Miss explored every avenue to travel to Norman and play on Saturday as planned. But, unlike every other team traveling for competition tomorrow, they were unable to find a solution. After multiple conversations with the league office, Commissioner (Greg) Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection. After continued discussions, he further informed us that our failure to play on Sunday at the directed time would result in a forfeit.
"Rescheduling the game has a significant impact, particularly on our fans. Those who have made travel arrangements, accommodations and personal plans around a Saturday game now face unnecessary disruption and hardship. Their time, commitment and investment deserve greater consideration than they were afforded in the conference's decision tonight.
"I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances. 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.
"We will continue to fight in the best interests of OU Athletics and always on behalf of our student-athletes and fans.
"On Saturday, we will share more on game logistics and fan appreciation measures."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ole Miss-Oklahoma game pushed to Sunday after FAA ground stop causes travel issues for Rebels
