BYU–Baylor Kickoff Moves to 7 p.m. ET After Flight Disruption

PROVO, Utah – Baylor will have to travel to Utah on the same day it faces No. 10 BYU, with a later kickoff preserving Saturday’s game after a nationwide flight disruption prevented the Bears from making their planned trip. The matchup has been delayed, not moved to another date.

The teams are now scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 14, at LaVell Edwards Stadium. That is 5 p.m. MST in Provo and 6 p.m. Central in Waco. FOX will still televise the game.

The change pushes kickoff back three and a half hours from the original 1:30 p.m. Mountain start. It gives Baylor additional time to reach the venue, while shifting a conference game between two teams carrying identical 4-2 Big 12 records into the evening.

In its official announcement Friday night, Baylor attributed the adjustment to flight challenges caused by the Federal Aviation Administration‘s national ground stop. The school said it planned to depart Waco on Saturday morning. It did not provide a departure time, an expected landing time or a revised pregame itinerary.

That leaves an important distinction between a travel plan and a completed journey. The later start is confirmed by the schools; Baylor’s arrival is not established by those announcements. There is no verified basis in them to calculate how much time the team will have at the stadium before kickoff.

BYU’s announcement said the Big 12 Conference made the change in conjunction with both universities. It also changed the start times of two other home events, turning the football adjustment into a wider revision of Saturday’s athletics schedule.

For viewers, the central instruction is straightforward: use 7 p.m. Eastern for the football game, rather than the original afternoon listing. BYU’s football account gave both the Mountain and Eastern times in its public update, reducing the chance that fans in different time zones would read the change as two separate announcements.

Baylor’s release uses 6 p.m. Central for the same kickoff. The three published times describe one start, not competing schedules. The stadium remains in Provo, and neither school’s announcement moves the game away from Saturday.

The Bears enter at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play, according to Baylor’s release. BYU is 7-2 overall and also 4-2 in the Big 12. The logistical adjustment does not change the immediate conference stakes: a decisive result would move the winner to 5-2 in league play and the loser to 4-3.

Those figures do not establish either team’s championship prospects on their own. The schools’ scheduling releases do not set out the full standings or possible tiebreakers, and the kickoff change should not be mistaken for a change to the competitive format. It is a response to travel disruption.

Sports Illustrated’s BYU coverage reported that Baylor had been boarding its flight when the grounding was announced and returned to its facility instead of departing. The report said flights were permitted to resume Friday evening, but the Bears would wait until Saturday morning to leave.

That sequence explains why the lifting of a national restriction did not automatically restore the original game plan. Permission for flights to resume and a team’s actual departure are separate developments. Baylor’s own statement confirms the morning travel plan without supplying further operational details.

There is also no announced change of television network to accompany the later start. Both university releases retain FOX, and Baylor says its Sports Media Network will carry a radio broadcast. Viewers therefore need a different start time, not a different announced television destination.

On BYU‘s campus, women’s basketball will now begin at 1 p.m. Mountain in the Marriott Center, while women’s volleyball will start at 2 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU says both events will be available on ESPN+. Their times should not be confused with the football kickoff.

The revised starts put those two home events before the 5 p.m. football game, although the announcement does not promise that spectators can attend every event in full. Start times alone cannot establish when a basketball game or volleyball match will finish.

The schools’ notices also do not provide a revised account of stadium entry, parking or Baylor’s movements after landing. Those details remain outside what the published scheduling announcements establish. The confirmed change is the start of play.

For Baylor, the remaining task is more immediate than interpreting the listings. Its Friday-night announcement ends with a plan to depart Waco on Saturday morning. The new kickoff gives that journey more room, but the journey still has to be made.