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BYU vs Baylor Game Status in Question After Team Flight Grounded

The BYU-Baylor game may be in jeopardy as flights are grounded across the country
Casey Lundquist|
BYU defensive line against Baylor
BYU defensive line against Baylor | BYU Photo

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BYU's game against Baylor on Saturday is officially in jeopardy. On Friday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded every flight in the country “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

The Baylor Bears were boarding their flight to Provo when the FAA made the announcement. Instead of departing for Provo, Baylor returned to its facility.

According to a local reporter that was permitted to travel with the team, the Bears returned to their facility to wait for the grounding mandate to be lifted. Later, they made the decision that they will not be flying to Utah on Friday night.

Pete Nakos reported that Baylor plans to fly to Utah in the morning.

BYU-Baylor is not the only game in jeopardy. There are schools from the SEC, the Big Ten, and the Big 12 that did not fly before the mandate. Some schools like Auburn jumped on buses to drive to their destinations. Ross Dellenger of On3 reported that "conference officials are discussing potential kickoff time adjustments with media partners, including swapping time slots with other games."

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The Big 12 conference released a statement on Friday evening:

"Due to the national FAA ground stop impacting team travel, the Big 12 Conference is evaluating potential changes to Saturday's football schedule. The Conference will continue to monitor the travel disruptions alongside its member institutions and provide updates for Saturday's games."

Arizona State is scheduled to play UCF at 3:30 PM Eastern Time. The Sun Devils will not fly to Orlando until Saturday morning, according to Chris Karpman of Sun Devil Source. This could be an option for Baylor if the FAA does not lift the ban by Friday afternoon/evening. The flight from Waco to Provo is shorter than the flight from Tempe to Orlando.

BYU and Baylor are scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 PM Mountain Time on FOX. FOX is scheduled to broadcast Utah-Arizona in the primetime slot. However, the Utes did not make their flight to Tucson, either. Therefore, FOX could switch a few kickoff times depending on when the mandate is lifted. Utah's flight to Arizona is shorter than Baylor's flight to Provo, so it wouldn't be impossible for Utah-Arizona to take the afternoon slot and BYU-Baylor to take the evening slot if the teams can't travel until the morning.

FOX does not have a late-night game scheduled, either. Hypothetically, BYU and Baylor could kickoff at 8:30 Mountain Time.

Since there are only three weeks left of the college football regular season, re-scheduling these games is not an option. While this hasn't been reported, it's possible that some games across the country could be pushed to Sunday. For BYU, however, that is not an option as BYU does not play games on Sundays. Pete Thamel reported as much on Friday.

This article will be updated with updates.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of BYU On SI. He has covered BYU athletics since 2020. During that time, he has published over 3,500 stories that have reached millions of readers.

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