Traveler frustration during the last 24 hours has been as widespread as the FAA‘s ground stop order, and perhaps no one was more peeved than Roger Denny, the University of Oklahoma athletic director who took to X last night to slam the one-day postponement of the college football showdown between his Sooners and the Ole Miss Rebels.
While writing that the Sooners “recognize the extraordinary circumstances” that caused the massive four-hour flight shutdown yesterday and the “challenges” it created for traveling athletic teams across the country, Denny wasn’t happy – to put it mildly – with the postponement of his team’s Saturday game to Sunday.
“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny wrote in his lengthy X post after 1 a.m. ET today. “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.”
More than 1,000 flights today remain delayed, with more than 3,000 today canceled, according to CNN.
The Sooners-Rebels game had originally been set for today, Saturday, at 4 p.m./ET but was rescheduled last night for Sunday at 1 p.m./ET. The showdown is a home game for the Sooners, taking place at the Memorial Stadium on Oklahoma’s Norman campus.
The game was postponed because the Rebels could leave Mississippi Friday due to the flight shutdowns.
“As soon as we learned of Ole Miss’ travel issues,” Denny writes, “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,” he continued, “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 wrote that his team is “obligated to play the game when directed,” but that they “remain steadfast in our belief that the wrong outcome was reached this evening.”
The AD said additional information of “game logistics and fan appreciations measures” would be announced today (Saturday). He closed the message with, “Boomer Sooner, Roger”.
Other college games rescheduled by the ground stop were same-day (Saturday) delays (check local listings for television coverage of the games). The game disruptions include:
Auburn-Mississippi State: Moved from 12 p.m./ET to 4:15 p.m./ET;
Washington-Michigan State: Moved from 4:15 p.m./ET to 5:30 p.m./ET
Arizona State-UCF: Moved from 3:30 p.m./ET to 5:30 p.m./ET
Kansas-West Virginia: Moved from 5:30 p.m./ET to 3:30 p.m./ET
Baylor-BYU: Moved from 3:30 p.m./ET to 7:00 p.m./ET
Utah-Arizona: Moved from 7:30 p.m./ET to 10:30 p.m./ET
Tulane-Rice: Moved from 2 p.m./ET to 4:30 p.m./ET
FAU-Tulsa: Moved from 3:30 p.m./ET to 7:15 p.m. ET
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