NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — As public scrutiny led by Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny grows louder, Ole Miss insists it did everything possible to avoid postponing Saturday’s football game in Norman.
The Southeastern Conference announced at 1:12 a.m. EST on Saturday that the game between No. 19 Ole Miss and Oklahoma would be delayed a full day as the FAA's decision to ground all flights sent sports teams nationwide scrambling for new travel accommodations.
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The game, originally set for 4:15 p.m. EST on Saturday, now has a kickoff time of 1 p.m. EST on Sunday.
Ole Miss said in a statement on Saturday that every effort was made to arrive in time.
“Like the rest of the nation, we faced unprecedented challenges with Friday’s ground stoppage,” the statement read. “As we worked through the travel issues and uncertainty surrounding the situation in real time, the goal was always to fly to Norman Friday night and play the game Saturday.”
Ole Miss doubled down on SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s remarks that the charter company could not accommodate a late Friday night departure after the stoppage was lifted.
“At that hour, due to the time required to rescreen the party and travel to the Tupelo airport, the crew’s duty time would have expired prior to departure,” the statement said. “There were no other flight options at that point, and we determined it was too late to put our student-athletes on a bus trip of eight or more hours. In addition, the flight crew’s duty time restrictions prevented us from being able to fly out until Saturday afternoon at the earliest.”
Denny ripped the decision, which he said Sankey made over the Sooners’ “strong objection.” He said the SEC threatened Oklahoma with a forfeit if it did not agree to Sunday’s move, though no such threat was issued to Ole Miss.
The athletic director said on the Sooner Scoop podcast that Oklahoma was open to postponing the game to much later Saturday despite the challenges it would present, but the SEC did not make that an option.
Denny said that Oklahoma has several other events happening on campus Sunday, including a league event as the regular season winds down, that the conference did not appear to consider.
“It feels to me that there are a hell of a lot of circumstances that they didn't take into account," he said.
Denny said Oklahoma began hearing from state highway patrol and local police as early as 9 p.m. last night that Ole Miss had said the game would be pushed to Sunday.
“It’s inexplicable. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they can’t find a way to get here, and my concern is the level at which they were pushed to find a way to get here."
Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops also criticized the decision.
“This decision by Greg Sankey is absolutely wrong,” Stoops said in a statement posted on X. “All of the power 4 teams found a way to make it to their games, but Ole Miss wouldn’t ... Greg Sankey instead of telling OU they would forfeit if they didn’t change the day, he could have told Ole Miss they will forfeit if they didn’t find a way to Norman even if game is delayed. But instead he didn’t!!”
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