Ole Miss on Saturday defended its efforts to get to Norman in time for its SEC clash against Oklahoma.
After a nationwide ground stop kept the Rebels in Oxford overnight on Friday, the school released a statement explaining why it couldn’t make the trip in time for the originally scheduled kickoff, which was moved to Sunday.
“Like the rest of the nation, we faced unprecedented challenges with Friday’s ground stoppage. 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.”
The school said it began preparing for departure Friday night after the ground stoppage was lifted, but the flight crew’s allotted duty time would have expired before the team could take off, forcing the Rebels to wait until “Saturday afternoon at the earliest.”
Ole Miss also determined it was “too late to put our student-athletes on a bus trip of eight or more hours.”
“We understand other SEC teams were able to keep their games on Saturday, with those visiting teams having available Friday charters or ability to bus to their game in four hours,” the statement read. “We did not have those advantages. We regret that the game had to be moved to Sunday, but we took every reasonable action in our power to avoid this scenario. The ground stoppage has been an unfortunate ordeal for all of us, and we are grateful that a solution was reached to play our game.”
The statement came after Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny ripped the SEC’s decision to move the game from 4 p.m. ET Saturday to 1 p.m. ET Sunday, saying the postponement was made despite the school’s “strong objection.”
“I understand that difficult decisions sometimes must be made under extraordinary circumstances,” Denny’s statement read. “But those decisions must also consider the impact on everyone involved. Put simply, this decision isn’t fair to our athletes, our institution, or to Sooner Nation. We’ve been given no other choice. We are obligated to play this game when directed, but we remained steadfast in our belief that the wrong outcome was reached this evening.”
Denny’s statement didn’t go over well with ESPN’s Paul Finebaum.
During an appearance on “SEC Nation” on Saturday, Finebaum ripped him for questioning the postponement.
“First of all, I understand the frustration, and none of us really know what happened to Ole Miss,” Finebaum said. “I believe the administration at Ole Miss did everything they could. What I don’t think is correct is Roger Denny, the athletic director there [at Oklahoma], pathetically pandering to his fanbase at midnight to try to cover up whatever. I don’t know.
“But, Mr. Denny, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference made a decision for the entire conference and for the safety of everyone. He’s not concerned about what you’re doing with your fanbase. And what Roger Denny has been doing all year is pandering to his fanbase.”
