The Auburn vs Mississippi State kickoff time change pushed Saturday’s game to 4:15 p.m. ET after a nationwide FAA ground stop scrambled travel plans across college football. Auburn switched from flying to busing to Starkville, Mississippi, according to On3.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET on Friday, citing a communication issue affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers, according to Profootballnetwork. The order was lifted at 8:30 p.m. ET, per On3, but the disruption had already forced teams to adjust.
The Main Development
Auburn opted to travel by bus rather than fly to Mississippi State, a change that came directly out of the FAA’s nationwide order. The adjustment pushed the Auburn vs Mississippi State kickoff time to 4:15 p.m. ET, according to On3.
The FAA described the ground stop as necessary for “extraordinary circumstances” and safety reasons, per Profootballnetwork. The order applied nationwide and was not specific to college football, but it reached far enough into Friday evening and Saturday morning to affect team travel across the sport.
What It Means For Fans And Teams
Fans planning to watch or attend the Auburn-Mississippi State game need to account for the later start time. Teams traveling by air on short notice faced the same kind of scheduling squeeze that pushed Auburn onto a bus for its trip to Starkville.
The ground stop’s nearly five-hour window, from 3:54 p.m. ET Friday to 8:30 p.m. ET lifting, left airlines and charter operators working through a backlog of delayed flights. For a program needing to arrive in time for a Saturday game, that backlog made ground transportation a more reliable option.
Context Across College Football
Auburn and Mississippi State were not alone. Eight college football games received new kickoff times on Saturday because of the travel disruptions, and one game moved all the way to Sunday, according to On3.
The scale of the disruption shows how a single FAA order tied to air traffic control communications can ripple through an entire slate of games in a matter of hours. Programs that normally fly to road games had to decide quickly between delayed air travel, alternate kickoff windows or, in Auburn’s case, a bus trip.
What’s Next
Kickoff for Auburn at Mississippi State is now set for 4:15 p.m. ET Saturday. Fans should confirm their local broadcast or streaming window given the schedule shuffle across multiple games this weekend.
Auburn’s trip to Starkville follows a stretch of SEC games that included a walk-off win over Georgia and matchups against Tennessee, LSU and Ole Miss. Readers can catch up on Auburn’s upset win over Georgia and the team’s preview against Ole Miss for more on Auburn’s season.
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