Why did FAA ground air travel? Details explored as stop disrupts college football team plans

The abrupt traffic stoppage by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on November 13, 2026, due to communication failures and air traffic control center issues, triggered widespread disruption across the country.

According to a CBC report, the grounding stemmed from a major telecommunications and data outage that affected high-altitude air route traffic control centers. The stoppage grounded flights for more than four hours and upended travel plans for dozens of college football teams preparing for games the following day.

As per a USA Today report, the FAA stoppage was issued with an advisory window from 3:54 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET, and the order was lifted roughly three hours early around 8:30 p.m. ET. Even though several teams were affected by this stoppage, they rescheduled their timings accordingly.

College football games impacted by the FAA stoppage

Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) sudden halt in air traffic due to telecommunications and network router failure created chaos across the country. It not only affected 22 regional Air Route Traffic Control Centers but also created disruption for dozens of teams traveling to college football games across various sports.

According to a USA Today report, a few teams rescheduled the times of the college football games around the country. Here are the main games with their updated times –

Auburn at Mississippi State shifted its timing to 4:15 p.m. from its original kickoff at noon.

Arizona State at UCF moved to 5:30 p.m. ET from its previous time of 3:30 p.m. ET.

Kansas at West Virginia kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET, moved from its earlier time of 5:30 p.m. ET.

Baylor at BYU is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

Washington at Michigan State rescheduled from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

Utah at Arizona is scheduled for 10:30 p.m.

Florida Atlantic at Tulsa is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET, moved from its earlier time of 3:30 p.m.

Tulane at Rice is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., moved from 2:00 p.m.

The Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma football game has been moved to Sunday, November 15, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. CT (noon) in Norman, Oklahoma, rather than playing on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. ET.

According to a post on X, Tennessee at Texas A&M is expected to play as originally scheduled, with their game starting on November 14 at “2 p.m. CT on ESPN at Kyle Field.” The same applies to Texas at LSU, which will be playing on November 14 as per their original times, at 6:30 p.m. CT at Tiger Stadium.

The Longhorns were stuck in Austin and returned to campus during the ground stop. Once the FAA cleared air traffic, Texas headed back to the airport and flew out to Baton Rouge late Friday night.

Reflecting on the issue, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a social media post that the FAA had issued:

“a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”

He added that:

“FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”

While speaking to the reporters at the White House, Duffy blamed the nationwide FAA ground stoppage on an “old system,” referring to outdated 1980s copper lines, ageing switches, and overloaded legacy routers.

The FAA ground stoppage comes a day after Duffy demanded $30 billion from Congress to update the US Air Traffic Control System. In a letter to the lawmakers, Duffy and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote that “this investment is critical to complete the modernization of our national airspace.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the cause behind the FAA stop was a “telecommunications outage” and confirmed that there is no evidence of a cyber-attack.

The last time a nationwide FAA ground stop occurred before November 13, 2026, was on January 11, 2023. A BBC report stated that in 2023, domestic departures were halted for about 90 minutes to under 2 hours, due to an outage in the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. It was lifted shortly before 9:00 a.m. ET.

Reportedly, the FAA stoppage in 2023 delayed about 9,500 flights and cancelled about 1,300, though officials confirmed that there was no evidence of a cyberattack. Before the January 2023 event, the only other nationwide U.S. airspace shutdown followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.