FAA Nationwide Ground Stop Delays Texas, Tennessee and Ole Miss Travel Before Saturday College Football Games

This story will be updated by the hour as the ground stop and team travel plans change. Latest update: 6:20 p.m. ET, Friday, Nov. 13. The ground stop remains in effect, and no Saturday game has been moved or postponed.

Latest updates

6:20 p.m. ET: Still no end time from the FAA, and no Saturday game has been moved. The ACC told ESPN that all of its visiting teams reached their Saturday destinations before the ground stop. Tennessee, scheduled to leave Knoxville at 4 p.m., was sitting on the tarmac at McGhee Tyson Airport waiting for instructions, On3 reported. ESPN reported that Oregon State still had not left for Boise, and that Wyoming and North Texas were on flights that were also grounded before North Texas switched to buses.

6:07 p.m. ET: No. 15 USC is already in the air to Indiana, OutKick reported. The same report said Texas had boarded its plane in Austin before the stop, Tennessee could not get out of Knoxville for a planned 4 p.m. departure, Utah is grounded in Salt Lake City and Auburn may bus to Mississippi State. Undrafted is also watching for news on officiating crews, which usually travel the day before games. No game has been moved.

5:57 p.m. ET: Purdue will bus to No. 16 Iowa instead of flying, according to an ESPN source, and expects to arrive around 11 p.m.

5:52 p.m. ET: North Texas will take buses to UTSA, per ESPN sources. Players, coaches and medical staff are leaving soon, and non-essential staff will follow in the morning.

5:49 p.m. ET: Teams still in flight limbo, by conference, per ESPN. Big 12: Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State. SEC: Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas. Big Ten: Minnesota, Purdue and Washington. ACC: every visiting team has reached its destination. Oregon State, Wyoming and North Texas are also waiting.

The worst possible Friday afternoon for a college football travel coordinator arrived just before 4 p.m. ET. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for all airlines "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety," halting departing flights at U.S. airports on the day most road teams board their charters for Saturday.

What the FAA has said

The stop took effect at 2:54 p.m. Central, according to WAFB. In a post shortly after 4 p.m. ET, the FAA described "a temporary telecommunications outage" and said all flights were halted out of an abundance of caution. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that the stop followed "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers," adding that "FAA technicians are investigating the issue."

USA TODAY reported that the FAA advisory listed a window of 3:54 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET, but that flights stay grounded until further notice. No end time had been announced as of this update. It is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when an outage of the Notice to Air Missions system halted departures for about two hours.

Why Saturday is at risk

Teams that fly to road games usually leave on Friday afternoon, hold a walkthrough after landing and sleep near the stadium. Every hour on the tarmac pushes that schedule later into the night. ESPN's Pete Thamel wrote on X that "numerous college football teams" had yet to fly, and that if the stop continues "it could significantly impact college football tomorrow."

No conference or school had announced a kickoff change as of this update. Early Saturday games carry the most risk, because a team that lands late tonight has the least time to recover before kickoff.

Teams reported grounded or still at home

Texas: The No. 8 Longhorns are grounded and not yet en route to Baton Rouge, according to WAFB and USA TODAY, ahead of a 7:30 p.m. ET game at No. 24 LSU on ABC.

Tennessee: The No. 9 Volunteers are also grounded and not yet headed to College Station, USA TODAY reported. They play at Texas A&M at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Ole Miss: The No. 19 Rebels were still in Oxford late Friday afternoon, per USA TODAY, with a 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff at Oklahoma on SEC Network.

Utah: The No. 2 Utes had not yet traveled for their 7:30 p.m. ET game at No. 22 Arizona, USA TODAY reported.

Kansas State: Program officials told KCTV5 the Wildcats could not take off from Manhattan for their scheduled Friday afternoon flight to TCU.

Baylor (at No. 12 BYU), Arizona State, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon State (at No. 17 Boise State) and Wyoming were also still waiting as of 5:49 p.m. ET. Purdue and North Texas have switched to buses, as noted in the updates above.

Teams already in place

Not everyone got caught. Alabama will make the trip to Nashville by bus for its 12:45 p.m. ET game at Vanderbilt, USA TODAY reported. Missouri flew to Georgia as scheduled. Florida, Duke, Wake Forest, South Carolina and Texas Tech had already arrived at their road sites, according to USA TODAY, and every visiting ACC team has reached its destination.

Top 25 road trips still unconfirmed

Several other ranked matchups involve long trips that would normally happen Friday, though no travel trouble had been reported for them as of this update: Michigan at No. 18 Oregon, Boston College at No. 3 Notre Dame and UNLV at No. 23 New Mexico. No. 15 USC got out ahead of the stop and was in the air to No. 6 Indiana, according to OutKick. We will add each team's status as schools confirm it.

Friday night's games were not reported as affected. Road teams for those games normally travel a day earlier.

The officiating question

Teams are not the only ones who need a flight. College football officiating crews usually travel to their assignments the day before a game, so a long ground stop could strand referees as well as rosters. If enough officials are stuck, conferences may have to shuffle assignments, pull in replacements from nearby or work games with crews that arrive late and tired.

No conference had reported an officiating problem as of this update, and none of the reports we have read mention crews so far. Undrafted will add any crew changes or conference statements here.

What happens next

If the stop lifts this evening, most teams can still land tonight and keep Saturday's schedule close to normal. A longer outage would force schools and conferences into harder choices: buses for shorter trips, Saturday morning flights or moved kickoffs. Undrafted will update this story every hour with the FAA's status and any team or conference announcements.

Sources: Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, ESPN, CBS News, ABC News, WFTV, WAFB, USA TODAY, KCTV5, OutKick, On3, NBC Sports, Heavy, Stormin in Norman.

Photo: Texas Athletics (file photo from Oct. 24, 2026, vs. Ole Miss)