Grounded on Game Eve: A Nationwide Flight Stop Sends College Football Teams to the Highway Before Saturday's Big Games

Most college football teams spend Friday afternoon doing the same thing every week: board a charter, land near Saturday's stadium, eat a team dinner and get to bed early. On Friday, Nov. 13, that routine broke down across the country in a matter of minutes, and some of the biggest programs in the sport found themselves sitting on the ground with a game to play less than a day away.

The Federal Aviation Administration stopped departing flights nationwide at 3:54 p.m. Eastern after a communication problem hit the air route traffic control centers that guide planes between airports, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the cause on social media. ESPN counted at least 10 Power 4 football programs whose travel was thrown off by the stop.

Texas was already sitting on the tarmac when the stop was announced, according to a wire report carried by KIRO 7 in Seattle, and Arizona State was stranded at the airport. The Sun Devils' flight to Orlando for Saturday's game against UCF was delayed as well, CBS Sports reported. Utah, which plays at Arizona, and Tennessee were also among the teams left waiting, along with programs such as Ole Miss, Baylor, Kansas State, Washington and Minnesota, according to the same report.

The Longhorns' situation shows how tight the margins are. Texas visits LSU for a 6:30 p.m. Central kickoff on Saturday, and CBS Sports noted that if the team has to go by bus, the drive to Baton Rouge runs about seven hours.

Some coaches did not wait for the skies to clear. North Texas gave up on its grounded flight and boarded buses for San Antonio, where the Mean Green play UTSA. Auburn switched to a bus trip of roughly four hours to Mississippi State, where the Tigers have a noon Eastern kickoff, On3 reported. Alabama reportedly bused to Nashville for its game at Vanderbilt, and Purdue chose buses after its flight was held, people familiar with the decision told ESPN.

A handful of teams beat the clock. USC, Florida and Nebraska had already left before the stop took effect and were not affected, ESPN reported.

Multiple sources told CBS News that an update to the private communications network linking the nation's air traffic control system caused it to reboot and crash, knocking out communications, and the White House said there was no sign of a malicious act. Into the early evening, CNN's live coverage reported that officials still had no timeline for fully resolving the stop as cancellations piled up, though the FAA said departures would be released as the en route centers recovered.

The trouble did not end with college football. NBA, NHL and other college teams were also stranded as they tried to reach their next games, and NFL teams were watching closely, since visiting clubs usually fly out on Saturday for Sunday games. If the backlog lingers, some of those trips could get complicated too.

There is something old-fashioned and admirable about a football team that hears the word "grounded" and simply loads the equipment onto buses. Before charter jets became routine, long bus rides were part of the sport's culture, and plenty of coaches will tell you a few hours on the road together builds more than it costs. Auburn, Alabama, North Texas and Purdue did not complain; they found a way to get where they promised to be.

Still, no one should shrug at what happened Friday. A single network update was enough to stop departures across the entire country on one of the busiest travel afternoons of the fall, and athletes were only a small part of the crowd stuck in terminals. The country deserves an air traffic system as dependable as the people who rely on it every weekend, and the answers on what failed need to come quickly.

For the teams still waiting, the job now is to keep routines intact: eat, rest, walk through the game plan, and trust the staff to sort out the logistics. Kickoff will come either way. Whichever programs handle the disruption with patience and good humor will have a small edge on Saturday, and a story to tell long after the season ends.