Auburn Football Sees Game Time Change Following National Travel Issues

When the country closed airline travel on Friday afternoon, the Auburn Tigers were affected by the change. Now, head coach Alex Golesh will see a different kickoff time on Saturday afternoon.

Instead of the 11 a.m. local kickoff time, Auburn and Missisisppi State will now kick off from Starkville at 3:15 from Davis Wade Stadium, according to Auburn Athletics. The time change gives the Tigers time to recover before playing the SEC contest.

Initially, Auburn was supposed to fly to Starkville, but Friday’s FAA national ground stop halted the Tigers’ plans, as well as many others across the country. Instead, Golesh and the team took a bus to Tupelo, Mississippi, arriving at the team hotel late on Friday night.

The FAA’s historic ground stop was because of "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Because of this, it was reported that Auburn would travel by bus from Columbus, Georgia, to Tupelo. The drive is about five hours, and the team did it on Friday.

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Golesh spoke earlier this week about a difficult travel game, which would see the team make the trip to Starkville early on Saturday morning and travel back after the game was over. Add in the fact that the Tigers could become bowl eligible for the first time since the 2023 season, and Auburn will have even more adversity to go through to take down the Bulldogs this weekend.

However, it’s a Missisippi State team that has dropped its last five games without starting quarterback Kamario Taylor 100% during this stretch.

The ground stop has caused plenty of teams and programs to reschedule their respective games, either by time or day. The process won’t change for Golesh, it will just be four hours later instead of on a different day, which the idea is being passed around some programs which have to travel across the country and don’t have access to do so.

It’s just another part of the process for Golesh’s group, and if Auburn can be successful in weathering the storm, the Tigers will continue to gain momentum throughout a November slate that end with the No. 3 Alabama Crimson Tide.

With the game change, there will be a change on where the game will be televised on Saturday afternoon. Auburn Tigers on SI will remain updated with all the new changes that come with the schedule change.

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