Ole Miss Explains Why Oklahoma Game Was Moved to Sunday

详细摘要

Ole Miss has explained why the game against Oklahoma is being played on Sunday instead of Saturday. The school issued a statement on Saturday evening, and it explained the…

Ole Miss has explained why the game against Oklahoma is being played on Sunday instead of Saturday.

The school issued a statement on Saturday evening, and it explained the challenges it faced during the FAA's nationwide ground stop on Friday. The Rebels said they did not have the "advantages" other teams had to fly on Friday or travel by bus.

“Like the rest of the nation, we faced unprecedented challenges with Friday’s ground stoppage,” Ole Miss’ statement read. “As we worked through the travel issues and uncertainty surrounding the situation in real time, the goal was always to fly to Norman Friday night and play the game Saturday.

"After the stoppage was lifted at 7:30 p.m., we began preparing the team for departure before our charter broker, Air Planning, informed us that JetBlue could not fly us Friday night. At that hour, due to the time required to rescreen the party and travel to the Tupelo airport, the crew’s duty time would have expired prior to departure.

“There were no other flight options at that point, and we determined it was too late to put our student-athletes on a bus trip of eight or more hours. In addition, the flight crew’s duty time restrictions prevented us from being able to fly out until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.”

Ole Miss and Oklahoma will play on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The move led to strong criticism from Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny.

“We understand other SEC teams were able to keep their games on Saturday, with those visiting teams having available Friday charters or ability to bus to their game in four hours,” Ole Miss' statement read. “We did not have those advantages."

"It’s inexplicable," Denny said in an interview with SoonerScoop. "I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they can’t find a way to get here, and my concern is the level at which they were pushed to find a way to get here.

Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma was one of nine games postponed due to the nationwide ground stop.

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