The Florida Gators landed just at the nick of time ahead of their Saturday night game against the Kentucky Wildcats. The Gators were mid-flight and landed in Lexington just shortly after a nationwide ground stop due to a national air traffic control communications outage caused thousands of flight delays across the country.
Florida is set to take on Kentucky on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. ET at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., as scheduled.
Gators touchdown in Lexington as nationwide ground stop begins at airports across country
The Federal Aviation Administration declared a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” The groundstop was declared shortly after numerous airports were experiencing communication failures that caused the air traffic communications systems to fail.
The issues with air traffic control began at approximately 3:36 p.m. ET, according to United States transportation secretary Sean Duffy. A ground stop was declared around 3:54 p.m. ET. Luckily, Florida football's X account posted photos and videos of Gator coaches and players exiting the plane ahead of Florida's Saturday night game against Kentucky.
Wheels down in Lexington. pic.twitter.com/u27ztu8NOJ
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) November 13, 2026
The photos were posted within an hour of flights being grounded, which likely meant Florida just missed the delay. That means that Florida's game against the Wildcats will proceed as scheduled on Saturday evening. But Florida was one of the few lucky teams. Several other college football teams traveling across the country to their respective games have been affected.
FAA ground stop disrupts several Week 11 college football games
Due to several teams preparing to fly to their respective destinations, many different games have been moved back to accommodate the adjusted travel schedules. Here are the biggest adjustments for the weekend.
- Ole Miss Oklahoma, slated for 4:15 p.m. Saturday has reportedly been moved to Sunday afternoon
- No. 2 Utah-No. 23 Arizona pushed back three hours from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. EST kick
- BYU-Baylor pushed to 8 p.m. ET, originally scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
- Mississippi State’s game vs. Auburn moved from Noon ET to 4:15 p.m.
- Florida Atlantic game vs. Tulsa, originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET moved to 7:15 p.m.
- Kansas at West Virginia moved up to 3:30 p.m. ET
- UCF's game against Arizona State in Orlando, Fla. scheduled to kick off at 5:30 p.m. ET with a 4:15 p.m. ET original game time
- Purdue traveling by bus to take on Iowa at at 7:30 p.m. ET
Even Colorado State held a tarmac walk through as the team prepared for its flight to take on the Washington Huskies:
Scenes from the FAA stoppage: Colorado State is holding a walk-through at Northern Colorado Regional Airport as the team waits to fly to Pullman to play at Washington State on Saturday night. pic.twitter.com/JiKvb9FAJ5
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 14, 2026
“I would encourage those football teams to reach out to the FAA, to schedule their flight times and make sure they can move,” Duffy said via The Associated Press when asked about college football teams' scheduling.
While the ground stop is listed and several flights have taken off, we'll see if the issue persists on Saturday as teams try to make their way home. Duffy added that there is "no guarantee" the issue won't repeat itself.
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