Flight ground stop disrupts NBA, NHL and college football travel for the weekend

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's decision to ground all flights nationwide for several hours Friday threw the sports world into chaos, leaving NBA, NHL and college teams scrambling to reach their destinations in time for games this weekend.

Transportation officials cited "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications issues at regional air traffic control centers for the stoppage. It left some teams searching for hotel rooms, others rescheduling flights, leagues adjusting start times, and some teams had even taken the extraordinary step of chartering buses rather than waiting for the ground stop to end.

"We're going to allow for general aviation, those larger movements, to take place as a priority. Smaller movements will take lower priority," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said after the ground stop was lifted Friday night in Washington.

"If you're talking about football teams moving," Duffy continued, when asked about the sports landscape, "many of those are charters, and there's a lot of individuals on those charter planes, so I would encourage those football teams to reach out to the FAA to schedule those flight times, so they can move and make sure we have games going off tomorrow."

U.S. flights cleared to take off again after ground stop order caused thousands of delays and cancellations

Most college football teams playing Saturday travel the day before their game, and the stoppage left many schools — including No. 2 Utah, eighth-ranked Texas and No. 9 Tennessee — at a standstill as they departed for road games. The Utes play at No. 22 Arizona, the Longhorns visit No. 24 LSU and the Vols are traveling to Texas A&M in three of the bigger games of the weekend.

"The Southeastern Conference is