MARION, Ill. — The Nicholls football team found itself stuck in a small airport in Illinois for more than 20 hours following the Colonels' 35-0 loss to Southern Illinois in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs on Saturday afternoon.
According to Nicholls sports information, the delay was caused by damage to the landing gear of the plane scheduled to return them to New Orleans.
Of the nearly 150 people stranded, players, staff and school administration took to social media to show displeasure in waiting almost an entire day for a flight at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois with no food and eventually no water.
"Student athlete welfare matters, NCAA," Nicholls Athletic Director Jonathan Terrell posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. "Seven hours in an airport, no transportation, no food and out of water!!!!"
Nicholls President Jay Clune also shared his thoughts on X, and even tagged the NCAA in a post he stated was an "unacceptable situation."
"Football team has been stranded in Illinois airport since playoff game yesterday (17 hours)," Clune posted. "There have been several human factors in this unacceptable situation, none of which are attributable to (Nicholls). Thank you (Southern Illinois) for helping. NCAA needs to make changes."
In a post from the Southland Conference shortly before 7 p.m. on Sunday, the team finally managed to catch a flight and head home to South Louisiana.
"We’ve got great news! After 22 hours, the Colonels are heading home!," posted Southland Conference social media. "Thank you to everyone who helped out the Nicholls Football Team during this massive delay. Safe travels back to Thibodaux (finally)!"
The team arrived back on campus in Thibodaux shortly before 9:30 p.m.
Nicholls (6-4) clinched the Southland with a win over Southeastern on Nov. 17 to mark the first time the Colonels finished the regular season with a perfect conference record.
In Saturday's loss, sophomore quarterback Pat McQuaide was 12-of-26 passing with the two picks for the Colonels.
The Salukis (8-4) will travel to play No. 4 seed Idaho next Saturday.
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