EAST LANSING -- The status of Saturday's game between Michigan State and Washington is currently up in the air due to the FAA's nationwide ground stop of all outgoing flights.

Multiple reports say that the Huskies did not depart from Seattle in time before the ground stop was issued. According to flight tracking data, one flight was scheduled to depart from King County International Airport at 4:15 p.m. ET (1:15 p.m. local) and land at Capital Region International Airport in Lansing at about 8:30 p.m. ET. The order to ground all the planes was issued just before 4 p.m. ET.

A nationwide ground stoppage of all flights is pretty rare. This is only the third time in American history that this has happened. The first was 9/11, and the other happened in January 2023 due to a computer system failure. The second stoppage only lasted about an hour and a half, but this ongoing stoppage could go on indefinitely.

What the Potential Options Are

It's difficult to know exactly what would happen if Washington is unable to travel to East Lansing in time for Saturday's scheduled 4:15 p.m. ET kickoff. Obviously, it's too far for the Huskies to bus, but it's impossible to know when the ground order will be lifted, either. What makes the situation so unusual is that some traveling teams around college football successfully made their journeys to their respective destinations before the ground stoppage, and some didn't.

Michigan State-Washington is hardly the only game potentially being affected by this, though. According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, at least 10 teams from the Power Four teams are currently stuck. Minnesota and Purdue are the other affected traveling teams from the Big Ten.

Teams in flight limbo:
Big 12: Baylor, Kansas State, Utah and Arizona State
SEC: Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas
ACC: All visiting teams on the ground.
Big Ten: Minnesota, Purdue and Washington
ALSO confirmed in limbo -- Oregon State, Wyoming and North Texas. https://t.co/90SdwxZvmW

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 13, 2026

There really isn't a solution that doesn't cause some sort of other mess. Moving games to Sunday would maybe only be a temporary solution, since the grounding is indefinite. Doing that also creates a television nightmare, with the NFL taking up FOX's and CBS's respective airwaves for most of the afternoon and evening.

The playbook college football adopted after 9/11, moving postponed games to one week after the original final week of the regular season, also causes other issues. That's when the conference championship games are scheduled.

Of course, this story is still developing, and the ground order could also be lifted at any moment. This article will be updated if/when any necessary updates come in on the status of Saturday's contest.