Here’s the timeline. The FAA released an across the country ground stop Friday afternoon, around 3 p.m. Central time, after an air-traffic-control interactions failure. It was just the 2nd across the country shutdown of U.S. flight considering that September 11, 2001. The blockage was raised around 7:30 p.m. CT … however Ole Miss never ever left Oxford. The Rebels were sent out home, and when the interruption raised, their charter business could not turn a late-night flight. The next flight they might get was Saturday afternoon, according to an SEC declaration
The SEC revealed soon after midnight that the video game (initially set up for 3:15 p.m. Saturday) would start at 1 p.m. ET.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny did not await daybreak to react.
“After multiple conversations with the league office, Commissioner Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection,” Denny composed. “After continued discussions, he further informed us that our failure to play on Sunday at the directed time would result in a forfeit.”
<h2>Six Nations Why was Oklahoma-Ole Miss the only NCAA video game that needed to be used Sunday?</h2><p>Oklahoma had actually provided to play Saturday anyhow, even during the night. The league stated no.
Denny’s line near completion of the declaration is the one that will follow Sankey around: “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.”
He’s. No one is stating Ole Miss must have bussed through the night. There’s a distinction in between a league making a difficult call and a league informing a member school to take it or surrender … and Sankey, by Denny’s account, did both in the exact same discussion.
The information that sticks is that other groups went out. Fellow SEC schools Texas and Tennessee both flew Friday night after the interruption raised. <a href="https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/sports/college/football/2026/11/13/alabama-football-vanderbilt-faa-ground-stop/92626776007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z114721p004750c004750e1154xxv114721&gca-ft=9&gca-ds=sophi" target="_blank">Alabama bussed to Nashville</a> for its Saturday video game versus Vanderbilt. Ole Miss, flying out of Tupelo, about 50 miles from Oxford, could not get its charter business to turn an aircraft around.
Denny yielded the Rebels “explored every avenue” Kept in mind no other taking a trip group stopped working to discover a service … and it still does not alter the result. The group that could not fix its travel issue got the schedule bent around it. The group sitting in the house got informed to reorganize its weekend otherwise.
The fans is the concern Denny kept returning to in his declaration, and for great factor. Thousands purchased tickets and reserved hotels for a Saturday afternoon kickoff. Now it’s twelve noon on Sunday, making it OU’s very first regular-season Sunday video game because Sept. 1, 2019.
The fans lose the Saturday they spent for, and the school taking in all of it not did anything incorrect.
None of this makes the SEC’s choice indefensible. When Ole Miss could not land up until Saturday afternoon, the alternatives were Sunday or absolutely nothing. Sankey made the only call that gets the video game played … however the only call and a reasonable call aren’t the very same thing.
That’s why Denny published at midnight rather of sleeping on it. A surrender risk turns a logistics choice into a power choice. When a commissioner plays that card, the school on the other end has every right to state so in public.
The video game will be played Sunday at twelve noon, and it might well be a great one. Ole Miss is 6-3 and going after the playoff, Oklahoma is 5-4 and playing for pride and the chance for a much better bowl berth.
Whatever takes place on the field, the story of this video game was currently composed before kickoff, in a declaration published at 12:12 on a Saturday early morning.
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