The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday afternoon immediately and indefinitely grounded all air travel across American skies “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” It is the third time in our nation's history the order has been given.
The first was after the September 11 attacks, and the second was in 2023, when the FAA paused all domestic departures for two hours.
At press time, it's not currently known how long this nationwide grounding will last -- and the clock is ticking ahead of the college football weekend. "FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tweeted Friday.
The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 13, 2026
Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Arizona State, Washington, Oregon State, and North Texas had all yet to take flight, according to reporting by other outlets and FootballScoop sources. Alabama (at Vanderbilt), Auburn (at Mississippi State) and Clemson (at Georgia Tech) have already made decisions to bus to their respective destinations, and other programs are undoubtedly doing the same.
Teams that are in limbo, as of 6 p.m. ET:
-- Tennessee (at Texas A&M)
-- Texas (at LSU)
-- Tulane (at Rice)
-- Ole Miss (at Oklahoma)
-- Baylor (at BYU)
-- Kansas State (at TCU)
-- Washington (at Michigan State)
-- Minnesota (at Penn State)
-- Florida Atlantic (at Tulsa)
-- Utah (at Arizona)
-- Arizona State (at UCF)
Ole Miss players told to go home and report back at 7 pm. Scuttlebutt is the Rebels will fly out tonight or game could get pushed to Sunday.
— Chase Parham (@ChaseParham) November 13, 2026
Washington has gone back to campus and is waiting things out there. Huskies need to get to Michigan State.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 13, 2026
Cal and Stanford arrived in Virginia on Thursday. https://t.co/7P5Gj5ysyL https://t.co/36ff2dkbo3
Of course, getting there is only half the battle.
Florida State (at Pittsburgh), Illinois (at UCLA), and Houston (at Colorado) are all playing Friday night games as scheduled, but each are faced with the prospect of cross-country bus trips home if the issue is not resolved quickly.
Other teams making cross-country trips this weekend in FBS:
-- Wake Forest (at SMU)
-- Arizona State (at UCF)
-- Nebraska (at Rutgers)
-- UAB (at Temple)
-- Kennesaw State (at Sam Houston)
-- New Mexico State (at Missouri State)
-- FIU (at Delaware)
-- Boston College (at Notre Dame)
-- USC (at Indiana)
-- Baylor (at BYU)
-- Michigan (at Oregon)
-- Cal (at Virginia)
-- FAU (at Tulsa)
-- Nevada (at Northern Illinois)
-- Fresno State (at Texas State)
-- Washington (at Michigan State)
-- Kansas (at West Virginia)
-- Stanford (at Virginia Tech)
-- North Dakota State (at Hawaii)
We'll update this post as more news comes in.