Rainy and cold reception for No. 19 Mississippi at Oklahoma day later after travel issues
Detailed summary
The Sooner Schooner was parked on the sideline and there were swaths of empty seats when Oklahoma kicked off Sunday against No. 19 Mississippi after the ...
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The Sooner Schooner was parked on the sideline and there were swaths of empty seats when Oklahoma kicked off Sunday against No. 19 Mississippi after the Rebels didn’t arrive in time to play the game as scheduled the previous day.
Oklahoma fans who braved rain and chilly temperatures booed loudly when the Rebels ran out on the field before the start of the game.
Ole Miss arrived in Oklahoma City on Saturday night. The FAA’s decision to ground all flights on Friday sent sports teams nationwide scrambling for new travel accommodations.
While some other games adjusted kickoff times, Mississippi-Oklahoma was the only FBS game pushed back a day until Sunday.
Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny was upset with the decision, saying the Southeastern Conference threatened the Sooners with a forfeit if they didn’t agree to play Sunday.
“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny said in a statement on Saturday. “Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution or to Sooner nation.”
Clint and Kelsey Epperson, with their son and a buddy, stood in a steady rain outside Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium before kickoff. They drove three hours from Commerce in northeast Oklahoma — where baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle grew up — to celebrate their son’s 10th birthday.
They had bought game tickets in advance and paid $140 to stay in Norman an extra night.
“We were coming, no matter what,” said Clint Epperson, who agreed with Denny that SEC Commissioner Greg Stankey didn’t have enough consideration for the fans in changing the game. “We were an afterthought.”
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