NORMAN, Okla. — The No. 19 Ole Miss Rebels will play at Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., on Sunday at noon instead of Saturday afternoon, after a nationwide flight ground stop kept the team from leaving Oxford, Miss., on Friday night.
The Southeastern Conference made the call after the federal ground stop froze air travel across the country for more than five hours on Friday. Ole Miss had been scheduled to kick off in Norman, Okla., at 3:15 p.m. Saturday.
According to the league, the Rebels could not get out of Oxford while flights were grounded, and once the stop was lifted the charter company Ole Miss had hired was unable to handle a late-night departure. That pushed the team trip back to Saturday afternoon, too late for the original kickoff.
Oklahoma objected to the change. In a written statement, Sooners athletic director Roger Denny said the school had pressed the conference to keep the game on Saturday, and that Commissioner Greg Sankey moved it to Sunday over the school objections. His statement added that Oklahoma faced a forfeit if it declined to take the field at the new time.
Other programs caught up in the same disruption found ways to travel Saturday morning. Baylor, for one, had its game at BYU pushed back to 6 p.m. Saturday rather than moved to another day.
The Rebels beat the Sooners 34-26 when the teams met earlier this season. Sunday will bring a rare weekend shift for a Rebels team that now must fly out of Oxford on Saturday afternoon, spend a night in Norman and play the next day before heading home to Mississippi for the rest of the week. Oklahoma said it would share Sunday game details and plans for fans later Saturday.
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