FAA flight ground stop disrupts sports travel

The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to ground all flights nationwide for several hours Friday threw the sports world into chaos, leaving NBA, NHL and college teams scrambling to reach their destinations in time for games this weekend.

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Transportation officials cited "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications issues at regional air traffic control centers for the stoppage. It left some professional sports teams searching for hotel rooms, college teams were left to reschedule flights, and some teams had even taken the extraordinary step of chartering buses rather than waiting for the ground stop to end.

"We're going to allow for general aviation, those larger movements, to take place as a priority. Smaller movements will take lower priority," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during a news conference Friday night in Washington, D.C.

"If you're talking about football teams moving," Duffy continued, "many of those are charters, and there's a lot of individuals on those charter planes, so I would encourage those football teams to reach out to the FAA to schedule those flight times, so they can move and make sure we have games going off tomorrow."

Most college football teams playing Saturday travel the day before their game, and the stoppage left many schools - including No. 2 Utah, eighth-ranked Texas and No. 9 Tennessee - at a standstill as they departed for road games. The Utes play at No. 22 Arizona, the Longhorns visit No. 24 LSU and the Vols are traveling to Texas A&M in three of the bigger games of the weekend.

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"The Southeastern Conference is aware of the FAA's nationwide ground stop and the potential impact on team travel," the league said. "We are in close communication with our member institutions to assess potential disruptions and coordinate appropriate responses.

"The safety and well-being of student-athletes, coaches and team personnel remain our highest priority."

Texas and Tennessee both returned to their campuses during the ground stoppage. Once it was lifted following more than four hours of uncertainty, the schools began making plans to fly out as soon as possible, allowing them to arrive before game day.

Auburn opted to take a bus to Mississippi State while Purdue did the same from West Lafayette, Indiana, for its game at Iowa.

Other schools affected by the stoppage included No. 19 Ole Miss, Baylor, Washington, Kansas State and Minnesota.

"The Big 12 Conference is evaluating potential changes to Saturday's football schedule," the league said. "The conference will continue to monitor the travel disruptions alongside its member institutions and provide updates for Saturday's games."

Washington spokesman Kurt Svoboda said the Huskies returned to campus when flights were grounded, but officials stayed in touch with their Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines partners and their flight crew remained in place. The Huskies planned to fly out late Friday.

Florida State was playing at Pittsburgh on Friday night, while Illinois was visiting fourth-ranked UCLA and No. 14 Houston was visiting Colorado. Those teams were hoping their charter flights home afterward would be unaffected by the upheaval.

It also was unclear whether any referees, who typically fly to their assignments the day before games, would have trouble making it to their games. The Big Ten said in a statement that all of its officials had arrived for their scheduled assignments Saturday.

Several teams were able to take off before the stoppage began, including all of those traveling in the Atlantic Coast Conference; Missouri, which was flying to top-ranked Georgia; Duke, which was visiting fifth-ranked Miami; and No. 10 Texas Tech, which posted on social media images of its arrival for a game at Oklahoma State.

NFL teams playing Sunday typically travel the day before their games, and they were expected to fly as planned on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Nets were among five NBA teams scheduled to fly Friday for games Saturday. They had just boarded the team plane in New Orleans after playing the Pelicans earlier this week when their flight to Memphis was halted in place.

The Pistons flew earlier in the day to Miami. The Cavaliers, Bulls and Grizzlies played Friday night and were due to fly afterward.

The Cavaliers played in Miami on Friday night and were scheduled to play the Mavericks at home on Saturday. Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said about 90 minutes before tip-off that his team was scrambling to find hotel rooms for Friday night, just in case.

"It's part of it. You just adapt," Atkinson said.

There are 14 scheduled games in the NHL on Saturday. The Panthers were among the majority that made it to their destinations before the stoppage began, but the Sharks were left waiting in San Jose to see whether they would be able to travel to Utah.

JuJu Watkins and her third-ranked Southern California teammates were trying to get to South Carolina for their game Sunday against the top-ranked Gamecocks. The team had just boarded its flight at Los Angeles International Airport when the ground stop was issued. After a while, the decision was made to deboard passengers and the team returned to the Galen Center.

In soccer, the Utah Royals already were in the Washington, D.C., area ahead of their National Women's Soccer League semifinal against the Washington Spirit on Saturday. But the Kansas City Current were supposed to depart Friday for their semifinal against Gotham FC on Sunday in New York, and team officials were uncertain when their flight would be allowed to leave.

The U.S. national team's match against Haiti on Saturday in Miami was unaffected by the ground stop. Both teams and officials already were in town for the first leg of the two-match CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal series.

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