Sports media world reacts to ground stop disrupting college football

Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images via Reuters ConnectOn Friday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared a nationwide ground stop. The only other nationwide ground stops in recent U.S. history came on Sept. 11, 2001 and in January 2023.As of this writing, The New York Times is reporting more than 3,000 canceled flights, and CNN reported that government officials have “no timetable for resolution.”Olivia Rinaldi of CBS News reported that “an update to the private communications network” connecting the country’s air traffic control system “caused the system to reboot,” and the reboot triggered a crash.NEW: Multiple sources tell @CBSNews that an update to the private communications network that connects America’s air traffic control system caused the system to reboot.When the FAA’s telecommunication infrastructure rebooted, it crashed, causing the communications outage.The system is operated by L3Harris.Reporting w @NicoleSganga— Olivia Rinaldi (@olivialarinaldi) November 13, 2026The ground stop is causing mass chaos across the country, of course, and the sports world is not immune. More specifically, a significant chunk of the weekend’s college football schedule is in question.The Athletic is providing live updates here. All ACC programs reached their destinations before the ground stop. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that all eight Big Ten games will go on as scheduled on Saturday. Other predominant programs remain in limbo.Early Friday evening, Thamel relayed Baylor, Kansas City, Utah, Arizona State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas, Minnesota, Purdue, Washington, Oregon State, Wyoming, and North Texas as teams in “flight limbo.”Teams in flight limbo: Big 12: Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State SEC: Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas ACC: All visiting teams have reached their destinations. Big Ten: Minnesota, Purdue and Washington ALSO confirmed in limbo — Oregon State, Wyoming and North Texas.— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 13, 2026Thamel later reported that North Texas and Purdue opted to take busses to UTSA and Iowa, respectively, while Arizona State plans to fly to UCF on Saturday morning.This situation is obviously fluid and much can change over the course of the Friday night, but that doesn’t preclude us from understanding the scope of what has happened thus far through the lens of reactions from across sports media. Check out some of the best below.Fake as hell calling urself the boilermakers but flying everywhere— Lucy Rohden (@lucy_rohden) November 13, 2026I got my flight cancelled yesterday before it was popular btw— Lucy Rohden (@lucy_rohden) November 13, 2026Latest info here on college football teams impacted by the ground stoppage. Washington (Michigan State) and Arizona State (UCF) are most concerning as they have some of the longest travel times.— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 13, 2026[explaining a nationwide ground stop to an american] imagine a football team https://t.co/qjHaZJqE8B— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) November 13, 2026NEW: Conference officials are discussing potential kickoff time adjustments with media partners, including swapping time slots with other games, @RossDellenger reports.Airport staff has informed some administrators that the grounding could last 8 more hours.— On3 (@On3) November 13, 2026Conference officials are in dialogue with media partners about adjusting kickoff times of impacted games, potentially swapping time slots with other games. Several teams have returned to campus as airport staff informed administrators that the grounding could last 8 more hours.— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 13, 2026Arizona State, which now plans to fly Saturday morning to UCF for a 3:30 kickoff, was pushing back from its gate upon the stoppage alert. Washington’s plane had a flat tire causing a delay that resulted in the ground stoppage preventing it from taking off for Michigan State.— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 13, 2026Last year ESPN had Andre Ware hang out in Dallas after calling South Florida-North Texas on Friday night in case Kirk Herbstreit couldn’t make it in from Eugene in time to call Texas-OU. No such game close to Baton Rouge tonight.Pure guess, but guessing ESPN pulls up Nick Saban/Pat McAfee?https://t.co/yf8A8anTzU— Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) November 13, 2026Me: Checks which road favorites are impacted and how much I should wager on the opponents. https://t.co/upl38chb0X— Jeremy Pond (@JeremyPond) November 13, 2026I miss regional conferences — Chris Williamson (@CWilliamson44) November 13, 2026Shaggy it wasn’t me— Travonne Edwards (@Travonne) November 13, 2026Pretty sure the first rule of IT is don’t push an update on a Friday afternoon?— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) November 13, 2026everybody at sports illustrated right now https://t.co/8nbMtYuVWt— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) November 13, 2026If we had sane conferences still the vast majority of teams could take long bus rides to any conference game in an emergency. But instead Arizona State and UCF are in the same conference.— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) November 13, 2026@bykevinclark Big 12….special conference— Master (@MasterTes) November 13, 2026… https://t.co/UlN6skWYN3— Law Murray (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 13, 2026Some personal news:Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft.Today, I started a brand new job at the FAA and things are going pretty well!— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) November 13, 2026Statement from the Southeastern Conference on FAA nationwide ground stop: https://t.co/IIU4TnwMVJ— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) November 13, 2026Instant reaction to the FAA grounding all flights. https://t.co/fu1PzY2vab— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) November 13, 2026Keep up with the latest on how the FAA ground stop is impacting the college football world and this weekend’s games via @TheAthletic’s live blog: https://t.co/xylmeACMLC— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 13, 2026Here is @UW_Football returning to campus around 2:30 pm PT, due to the FAA nationwide ground stop.The Huskies were at the airport in buses, scheduled to fly to Michigan at 1:15 pm ahead of tomorrow’s Michigan St. game. @fox13seattle https://t.co/l8MnGtkc79— Lauren Helmbrecht (@lmhelmbrecht) November 13, 2026Per team spokespersons, both KU and Mizzou football were able to land for their road games before the FAA ground stop. K-State is stuck in Manhattan. Their flight to Fort Worth was scheduled for 2:30 p.m.— Katie Maher (@KatieKCTV5) November 13, 2026Since they are chartering their own flight, I’d imagine that it will be easier for Texas to eventually get out of Austin. Some of UT’s fans may not be as lucky, however, which would suck since those same fans are probably still upset about the 2020 LSU game getting cancelled.— Danny Davis (@_dannydavis) November 13, 2026If your football team isn’t willing to walk hundreds of miles to whoop another team’s ass that’s a poor reflection of your culture.— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) November 13, 2026Scenes from the FAA stoppage: Colorado State is holding a walk-through at Northern Colorado Regional Airport as the team waits to fly to Pullman to play at Washington State on Saturday night. https://t.co/JiKvb9FAJ5— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 14, 2026The post Sports media world reacts to nationwide ground stop disrupting college football schedule appeared first on Awful Announcing.