Auburn basketball flight gets diverted due to altercation between players

Auburn Tigers coach Bruce Pearl. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Auburn basketball flight forced to turn around due to altercation between players

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Nov 9, 2024 11:04 AM ET

The Auburn Tigers basketball team saw its flight get turned around for a very strange reason.

The Auburn plane returned home with the basketball team due to “horseplay between players” that “could have escalated into a fight,” according to Jeff Goodman of Field of 68. The 11th-ranked Tigers were en route for Saturday's game against No. 4 Houston, and the team is expected to fly there on a different flight later Friday.

Auburn plane returned back home due to horseplay between players on the flight that could have escalated into a fight, source told @TheFieldOf68.

Auburn was about 45 minutes en route and had to return home. Source said they are expected to take another plane to Houston later…

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) November 9, 2024

Justin Hokanson, who reports on Auburn for On3, said he had been told there was an “altercation on the plane between players,” but could not offer any further details.

Jonathan Hardison, who is a reporter for a local Fox affiliate, added a few more details:

NEW: Flight that appears to be the Auburn men's basketball team heading to Houston diverted back to Auburn this afternoon. Air Traffic Control audio we've obtained shows a pilot in that airspace telling ATC "we have a bunch of basketball players fighting"
We've reached out to…
— Jonathan Hardison (@WBRC6Hardison) November 9, 2024

The incident was clearly serious enough that the plane was diverted back to Alabama. There is not much precedent for that, especially since the Tigers play a very big game on Saturday.

Auburn is coming off a 27-8 season and expectations are high. Bruce Pearl’s programs have faced questions about a lack of discipline in the past, and this is not exactly a great sign.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: