As America prepared to wind down over the weekend with a busy slate of college football and basketball games, the NBA, NHL, and a full NFL Sunday, most of the teams were left scrambling at the airports. Over 7,000 domestic flights were delayed, according to FlightAware, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stopped air traffic nationwide for more than four hours.

Apparently, it was due to communication problems at regional air traffic control centers as they introduced upgrades to new software and the old ones could not process it timely, pulling incorrect data. It was enough to cause chaos in teams’ travel planning across the sporting world.

Some had to return to campus, while others looked at buses as an alternative. Flights resumed on Friday evening, but many travel plans had already changed. Some games got new kickoff times, one major College Football game moved to Sunday, and NBA teams faced unexpected travel and hotel problems. Here is everything that went down in the sporting world’s travel diaries.

College Football takes the biggest hit as multiple games face schedule changes

Many teams made it to their destinations before the ground stop was announced. However, most teams playing on Saturday usually travel a day before the game, making Friday an important day for their preparations. However, the disruption stopped several teams from reaching their destinations on time.

Utah, Texas, and Tennessee were among the affected teams. Texas and Tennessee returned to their campuses after their flights were grounded. After more than four hours of uncertainty, both teams arranged new flights and reached their destinations late Friday night. The SEC also released a statement:

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

However, Ole Miss could not travel to Oklahoma on Friday. The SEC moved the game from Saturday to Sunday at 1 PM ET, but Oklahoma strongly opposed the change.

University of Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny claimed that the SEC threatened the Sooners with a forfeit if they refused to play on Sunday. 

“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny said in a statement shared on X. “Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution or to Sooner nation.”

Oklahoma also said it had been in contact with Ole Miss and conference officials about the travel problems. However, the SEC still moved the game to Sunday despite Oklahoma’s objection. Other teams also found different ways to reach their destinations.

Auburn decided to take a bus to Mississippi State instead of waiting for flights. The SEC moved the kickoff from noon to 4:15 PM ET to give the team more travel time.

Purdue also took buses to Iowa. Meanwhile, the Big 12 changed two game times.

Kansas vs. West Virginia moved from 5:30 PM to 3:30 PM ET. This allowed Arizona State vs. UCF to move from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM, giving the Sun Devils three extra hours after their delayed flight from Arizona to Florida.

Washington also faced delays before its game against Michigan State. The Huskies returned to campus but left late Friday. Their kickoff moved back 75 minutes to 5:30 PM ET.

Baylor, Kansas State, Minnesota, and Colorado State also faced travel problems. Tulane arranged five buses for its 350-mile trip to Houston to play Rice. Meanwhile, the Big Ten confirmed that all game officials had reached their venues on time. Here are the kickoff changes for nine teams:

NBA teams scramble for flights and hotel rooms

College Football was not the only sport affected by the travel disruption. Several NBA teams also faced problems ahead of their weekend games. The Brooklyn Nets were among five teams scheduled to fly on Friday.

After a 145-111 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, the Nets had a practice session before they boarded their plane in New Orleans on Friday to travel to Memphis for a Saturday game. They were just moments away from taking off when the FAA’s ground stop delayed their departure. The team flew out Saturday morning.

The Cleveland Cavaliers also faced problems. After a 133-121 loss to Miami on Friday night, they planned to fly home before hosting the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. However, the flight disruption forced them to stay in Miami overnight. Things became harder as the team had already checked out of its hotel.

The Cavaliers now had to book rooms again. They planned to leave Miami at 9 AM on Saturday, giving them only around eight hours to reach home before facing Dallas.

“It’s part of it. You just adapt,” Head coach Kenny Atkinson said.

The Detroit Pistons flew in early on Friday for their game against the Heat and landed just before 5 pm to save them from the delays. The Chicago Bulls and the Grizzlies also played on Friday and had flights scheduled to leave right after their night games. The Bulls will also fly Saturday.

While the stop was lifted Friday evening, the referees flying commercially to the destinations may not be able to arrive on time, affecting that area of the games as well.

NHL teams also face uncertainty ahead of Saturday’s games

The NHL also had a busy weekend ahead, with 14 games scheduled for Saturday. This made the flight disruption another concern for teams preparing for their next matchups.

Several teams had already reached their destinations before the ground stop began. The Florida Panthers were among them. However, the San Jose Sharks initially had to wait in California to find out whether they could travel to Utah.

The situation finally improved for the team, and the Sharks managed to reach Utah later on Friday, removing another uncertainty from the NHL’s weekend schedule.

The Canucks will play the Golden Knights on Sunday and will need to make it to Las Vegas. The Nashville Predators will need to be in San Jose on Sunday. The Rangers have no game until their home game on Monday.

The disruption did not affect every team in the same way. However, it showed how much professional sports teams depend on air travel. Status about the officials is not yet available.

Teams often have to play games in different cities on consecutive days. Even a few hours of travel delay can create problems for their preparations and schedules.

USC Women’s Basketball forced to abandon its flight

Women’s college basketball teams also faced travel problems. With the marquee second edition on ‘The Real SC’ set for Sunday in Greenville, the USC Trojans were already boarded on their flight at Los Angeles International Airport.

The matchup would’ve seen the South Carolina Gamecocks take on the Trojans to decide whether they kept their ‘The Real SC’ title or not. But just minutes before takeoff, the FAA announced the ground stop.

The team stayed at the airport for hours before returning to the Galen Center. The game hasn’t been moved yet, nor has the team shared its new travel plans.

Soccer teams also adjust as weekend semifinals approach

Soccer teams also faced travel problems ahead of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) semifinals. The Utah Royals had already reached Washington, DC, before their Saturday game against the Washington Spirit. However, the Kansas City Current faced uncertainty as they planned to fly to New York on Friday for their Sunday semifinal against Gotham FC.

Officials did not know when their flight could leave. Meanwhile, the US men’s team’s game against Haiti in Miami remained unaffected, as both teams and officials were already there.

Transportation secretary explains why the FAA ground stop was necessary

While sports teams worked to fix their travel plans, transportation officials also shared more details about the aviation problem. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained the situation. 

“At 3:36 p.m., we experienced instability for our radar and our communications and our centers and our TRACONs across the country,” Duffy said. “So, at airports we have towers. The next rung out is a TRACON. After that, we have En Route Centers. At the TRACONS and the centers, we started to have inconsistency in the data from the radars and our communication with airplanes.  

“We have procedures for this. Our pilots are well trained. Our air traffic controllers are well trained. At that point we issued a ground stop, we had over 3,500 airplanes in the air. They all engaged and last time I looked we had less than 400 in the airspace as they were all coming in to safely land. And we navigated it with our well-known procedures that we have when these incidents happen.

“We didn’t lose all telecom, we didn’t lose all radar, but that instability because of abundance of caution and making sure we keep the American flyer safe, we did the ground stop.”

Reuters reported that the wider aviation network would need time to return to normal. Although the FAA lifted the nationwide restrictions, the impact continued beyond airports.

Sports teams now had to make sure their players, coaches, and officials reached their destinations before their games.