Ole Miss has broken its silence after Friday's Federal Aviation Administration ground stoppage forced the postponement of its Week 11 matchup against Oklahoma, pushing the kickoff back to Sunday, Nov. 15.
In a statement released on Saturday, Nov. 14, the Rebels said they intended to fly to Oklahoma for Saturday's game once the more-than-four-hour ground stoppage was lifted, but the crew that was chartering their JetBlue flight was unable to fly them, corroborating the SEC's previous statement.
"Like the rest of the nation, we faced unprecedented challenges with Friday’s ground stoppage. As we worked through the travel issues and uncertainty surrounding the situation in real time, the goal was always to fly to Norman Friday night and play the game
Saturday. After the stoppage was lifted at 7:30 p.m., we began preparing the team for departure before our charter broker, Air Planning, informed us that JetBlue could not fly us Friday night," the statement read.
Since the flight crew scheduled to operate the Rebels' flight, which departs from Tupelo Regional Airport in Mississippi, about an hour from Ole Miss' campus in Oxford, had exceeded its allowable flying hours, the team could not leave until Saturday afternoon. An alternative plan involving an eight-plus-hour bus ride was deemed too late in the process to be a viable option.
"At that hour, due to the time required to rescreen the party and travel to the Tupelo airport, the crew’s duty time would have expired prior to departure. There were no other flight options at that point, and we determined it was too late to put our student-athletes on a bus trip of eight or more hours. In addition, the flight crew’s duty time restrictions prevented us from being able to fly out until Saturday afternoon at the earliest."
The schedule change did not sit well with Oklahoma and Sooners athletic director Roger Denny, who didn't hold back in his statement early on Nov. 14 once the kickoff change was announced. Denny said the decision isn't fair and that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey informed the Sooners they would be forced to forfeit if they didn't play on Sunday.
Ole Miss-Oklahoma was one of two SEC games that saw a kickoff time changed due to the ground stoppage, with the other being Georgia vs. Missouri, which was pushed from noon ET to 4:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
"I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances," Denny said in a statement. "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."
The Rebels acknowledged that other Power Four programs — including some in the SEC — were able to alter their travel plans by getting on a bus or other available charters to get on once the grounding was lifted, but Ole Miss "did not have those advantages."
"We regret that the game had to be moved to Sunday, but we took every reasonable action in our power to avoid this scenario. The ground stoppage has been an unfortunate ordeal for all of us, and we are grateful that a solution was reached to play our game," the Rebels' statement continued.
Ole Miss and Oklahoma are set for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday, Nov. 15.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ole Miss details 'unfortunate ordeal' that pushed Oklahoma game to Sunday
