It’s been mostly he said, she said when it comes to the details of the bizarre events of Auburn‘s now-infamous flight to Houston for the top-15 matchup between the Tigers and Cougars. We know for certain the team plane was rerouted back to Auburn following a mid-flight dispute between players and landed before the Tigers boarded a new plane and reached their final destination late Friday night.
As for the specifics of the event that caused the reroute, those are a bit foggy. On one hand, The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported “there was yelling and guys got in each other’s faces” with “no actual fisticuffs,” calling it “horseplay.” AuburnLive’s Justin Hokanson used the same verbiage, adding that the flight crew grew uncomfortable with the situation and decided to turn the plane around in his report.
New flight audio of the event, however, indicates it may have gotten physical — more so than the team was willing to leak. In a conversation with Air Traffic Control, the pilot says there was, in fact, a fight that resulted in ripped clothes with police called upon their return.
“We’ve got an altercation on board. … We’ve got a bunch of basketball players fighting. The flight deck is secure, threat level is contained for the moment,” the pilot said. “We want police on the ground. We have two players that got into a physical altercation. Clothes were ripped. … It’s kind of crazy.”
Despite the altercation, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reports that the head-to-head matchup between No. 11 Auburn and No. 4 Houston is on as scheduled with tip-off set for 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
A big game just got bigger.
