FAA ground stop throws college football into chaos, while the NFL is safe

A Federal Aviation Administration ground stop that lasted more than four hours and canceled over 7,000 flights Friday affected the travel plans for several teams across multiple sports.

Follow along for live coverage

Multiple games in college football had to be rescheduled to accommodate new travel plans, while a handful of NBA teams changed their flights as a result of the ground stop. Every NFL game, meanwhile, will be played as scheduled, as all road teams were scheduled to travel Saturday.

A few backup referees for the NFL

Every NFL game will stick to its original start time, a league spokesman confirmed to NBC News. Teams playing Sunday typically do not travel until Saturday, meaning the league was largely unaffected by the Friday ground stop.

The New England Patriots and Detroit Lions, who are playing in Munich, Germany, both traveled overseas well ahead of the stop.

While the league’s teams and players will arrive as scheduled, the NFL did have to modify officiating crews for Sunday’s games.

“Due to the ongoing nationwide impact to air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns,” a league spokesman said.

Three backup referees — Duane Heydt, Barry Anderson and Don Willard — will be used Sunday. Heydt was assigned to a game in New Orleans, Anderson in Tennessee, while Willard will be the side judge for games in both Indianapolis and Cincinnati. (The kickoffs in those two games are more than seven hours apart, and the stadiums are separated by less than 120 miles.)

“Each of the league’s 17 officiating crews have a backup referee identified, and that individual trains throughout the year to work at the referee position should the need arise,” the league spokesman said.

Many college football games have been pushed back

Travel plans for more than a dozen teams were affected by the stoppage, according to The Athletic.

Some schools opted to fly out on Saturday morning for games scheduled the same day, while others — including the Alabama Crimson Tide playing at Vanderbilt — took a bus to their destination.

Several kickoffs were pushed back to later Saturday to accomodate new travel plans, including the games between Baylor and BYU, Arizona State and UCF and Utah and Arizona.

The game between Oklahoma and Ole Miss, however, was pushed back to Sunday after Ole Miss couldn’t figure out its travel in time — and it drew a strong response from the Sooners.

“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,” Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny said in a statement. “After multiple conversations with the league office, [SEC] 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.”

Denny’s statement added: “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.”

No major issues for the NBA and NHL

A few NBA teams — such as the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls — had to reschedule flights from Friday night to Saturday morning, but otherwise it’s largely business as usual for the Association.

A league source confirmed to NBC News all games would take place as scheduled as of Saturday morning, though noted there were a lot of moving parts.

“Flights are late, get stuck on the runway, just like it does in the normal commercial world of flight, so it’s just part of it,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said before the team’s game Friday. “We’ve all been part of it. You just adapt.”

Atkinson’s star guard, Donovan Mitchell, was not enthused about the new plan, as Cleveland has a quick turnaround to another game Saturday.

“This is unprecedented,” Mitchell said Friday, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. “Back-to-back. Three-hour flight. It was already going to be a tough one. But if they say we have to play then we have to play.”

Mitchell added he would have liked for the game to be canceled.

The NHL, meanwhile, has not announced any changes to its schedule. The league had only two games on Friday night, allowing most teams to travel for their road games prior to the stoppage, according to The Athletic.