Ole Miss was not able to travel to Oklahoma in time for the college football game on Saturday due to the nationwide ground stop. The Sooners were told by the SEC that they would be required to forfeit if they did not play the Rebels on Sunday instead.
Kickoff is officially rescheduled for Sunday at noon.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny is not happy with the conference or the current situation. He does not think this last-minute change is fair to anyone involved with the college football program, including fans.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny blames the SEC.
The FAA shutdown on Friday obviously caused a lot of chaos for travelers all over the United States. Many college football programs were impacted by the ground stop. They were not able to fly to their scheduled road games as planned.
Most teams were able to reschedule their flights and/or chose to drive. Ole Miss could not. The Rebels were unable to get on a plane to Norman on Friday night. As a result, their game at Oklahoma was bumped to Sunday.
Roger Denny claims the SEC told him that his team would forfeit if they did not agree to play.
“We recognize the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the ground stoppage and understand the challenges it 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 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.
Oklahoma will now need to scramble to move all of its game day operations from Saturday to Sunday. That includes stadium security staff, concessions staff, parking attendants, etc., in addition to the logistics of a game day as a football program. That also includes the fans who may not be able to make the game on Sunday. Many of them already traveled to Norman and already spent money on tickets, lodging, etc. Will they get a refund?
The change also means that, per the current forecast, the game will be played in 40º weather with rain. Gross.
Why was the Ole Miss football team unable to travel?
Every other college football team was able to fly on late Friday night or early Saturday morning to play their game on Saturday. Ole Miss was not. As much of a bummer as it is, logistics of the situation are mostly out of the Rebels’ control.
Ole Miss flys on JetBlue out of the Tupelo Regional Airport, which is not a big airport. It is located an hour from campus in Oxford. It has very little scheduled commercial traffic and goes uncontrolled after 10:00 p.m.
Therefore, because of the nationwide ground stop, the JetBlue operating crew that was supposed to fly the Rebels to Norman on Friday afternoon had timed out. They were not allowed to get in the air late on Friday night.
And, because Tupelo is not a hub for JetBlue, there was not a relief crew available to operate the chartered flight on Friday night. Plus, no commercial flights flew in or out of Tupelo after the ground stop on Friday. A relief crew could not be flown in. There was nobody available to fly the plane.
That would mean that the earliest Ole Miss could depart out of Tupelo would be 10 hours after the flight crew had timed out on Friday night. They are required to rest for 10 hours.
Depending on when the flight crew timed out on Friday night, the crew might not have been available to begin their next work day until late Saturday morning. If you tack on the extra hour drives from Oxford to Tupelo, an hour to board, and an hour flight, the Rebels wouldn’t arrive to Oklahoma City until closer to noon. From there it takes about an hour to load off the plane and load on to the buses, and 30 minutes to drive to Norman from Oklahoma City. They wouldn’t get to campus until late afternoon.
Even if the SEC delayed kickoff to later in the evening, Ole Miss would still run into logistical challenges. It would still be forced to rush its game day operations upon arrival. Player safety would still be a concern. The timing didn’t work out.
Now, I don’t really know why the Rebels could not drive. They could’ve hit the road on late Friday afternoon and been to Norman shortly after midnight. Other teams were able to do so. They also could’ve hit the road on late Friday night and been to Norman by early Saturday morning, which might’ve allowed the players to sleep during the day and play on Saturday night.
The logistics were once again the issue. Is that fair to the players to make them drive overnight and play a game on improper rest with a rushed pregame schedule? Were buses even available? It’s a huge bummer for everybody involved but it is what it is.