NCAA leaves game decisions to conferences
Andrew Soukup
Associate Sports Editor
The NCAA has decided to give individual conferences and teams the authority to postpone football games on Saturday rather than make one decision, conference commissioners announced Wednesday
All 10 Division I football conference commissioners, in a mid-afternoon conference call, agreed to let their respective member schools decide whether or not to play Saturday afternoon.
It appears that if conferences are allowing teams to compete Saturday, all conference games will still be played. Games involving non-conference opponents will be played at the discretion of the two teams.
So far, the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Mid-American, Conference USA, Mountain West, and WAC have decided to allow their teams to compete Saturday in both conference and non-conference games with few exceptions. The Pac-10 and Big East both postponed all league games.
Notre Dame and Purdue postponed their game in part because the Big East suggested all games be rescheduled. Although the Irish football program is independent, the rest of Notre Dame's athletic programs compete in the Big East conference. Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White confirmed that Notre Dame cancelled its game because of the Big East moratorium.
"We certainly agree with his decision, in light of the current situation," said George Kelly, special assistant to White. "We know who we are and we think this tells the world who we are and how we feel at this particular time."
"Our football athletic directors voted unanimously to postpone Saturday's games," Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said in a prepared statement. "In memory of the victims and their families, our football teams will wear American flags on the back of their helmets for the rest of the season."
Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie refused to comment on teams who chose to play games on Saturday.
"I think the right decision was made [for the Irish to postpone its game]," he said. "I think we made the right decision not practicing yesterday. I sensed a different atmosphere out there today, and I can only imagine what it would have been like yesterday."
Both the SEC and the Big Ten decided to donate $1 million to assist victims on Tuesday's terrorist attacks. White said he had not discussed the possibility of the Big East making a similar gesture, nor did he say that Notre Dame planned any action on its own.
"The Notre Dame community has always responded in the right way to these kind of emergencies," said White. "I just don't know what [University president Father Edward] Malloy has thought about privately, we're still working through the early innings of all this."
Conference commissioners agreed that if a school has to cancel a game on Saturday, the school will not be held back from bowl competition if they finish with a 5-5 record. Normally, a team needs six wins to qualify for a bowl game.
In all, 36 football games have been postponed, including matchups between No. 1 Miami-No. 13 Washington, No. 5 Florida State-No.11 Georgia Tech and No. 12 UCLA-Arizona State. No makeup date has been officially announced.
Two SEC schools, No. 2 Florida and No. 8 Tennessee, are both still scheduled to play against each other Saturday in what is easily the nation's most high-profile college football game.
The NCAA could still postpone Saturday's games if President George W. Bush issues an executive order or declares Saturday a day of national mourning. Tuesday, NCAA President Cedric Dempsey said the NCAA would cooperate with any federal declarations.
Travel complications could mean more games could be postponed, as well.
All three football games originally scheduled to be played Thursday night were postponed. Texas Tech and UTEP tentatively moved their game to Saturday night, while Ohio and North Carolina State rescheduled their game on Nov. 24. Penn State and Virginia still have not set a make-up date for their game.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, September 13, 2001
