The nationwide shutdown of the aviation system on Friday led to a delayed kickoff of several college football games SATURDAY. One of them was moved to Sunday – and the home team isn’t happy.
Ole Miss’ visit to Oklahoma moved from 4:15 p.m. ET Saturday to 1 p.m. ET Sunday.
“The Ole Miss football team was unable to leave Oxford on Friday evening “After the shutdown was lifted, a late night departure could not be arranged by the charter company with which Ole Miss had signed a contract and the team departure was delayed until Saturday afternoon.”
Oklahoma Athletic Director Roger Denny with determination opposed the decision to move the match to Sunday.
“After several conversations with the league office, Commissioner (Greg) Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection,” Denny said. “He further informed us that our failure to play on Sunday at the designated time would result in a forfeit. I understand that difficult decisions must sometimes be made in extraordinary circumstances. But those decisions must also consider the impact on everyone involved. Simply put, this decision is not fair to our athletes, our institution or to Sooner Nation.”
Oklahoma will nevertheless comply with the decision. Even if the Sooners don’t like the decision to play the game later.
“The postponement of the game has a significant impact, especially on our fans,” Denny said. “Those who have arranged their travel, accommodations and personal plans in anticipation of a Saturday game now face unnecessary disruption and difficulty. Their time, commitment and investment deserve greater consideration than was given to them in tonight’s conference decision. . . . We are obligated to play the game when asked to do so. But we remain firm in our belief that the wrong result was reached tonight.”
On the one hand, there’s no point in huffing and puffing if Oklahoma isn’t ultimately going to bring the house down. On the other hand, the school may have felt obligated to do something to deflect the frustrations of those who were unhappy with the game being postponed until the next day.
Ultimately, the ground stop created disruption and inconvenience to the travel of millions of people. And few people are happy about it.
Oklahoma chose to file suit. If it makes them feel better, great. Ultimately, it doesn’t change the fact that the game will be added to the group of NFL games that start at the same time Sunday afternoon.
Gn sports
