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Officials to discuss games'
cancellations
By Paul Trembacki
Sports
Editor
As of Tuesday night, Purdue's football game with
Notre Dame was still scheduled.
However, that may change, considering a crowd of
more than 60,000 people would open themselves to an easy attack by gathering
in one place.
In the aftermath of terrorist attacks Tuesday morning
in Washington and New York, NCAA, Big Ten and Purdue officials are reconsidering
proceeding with athletic events scheduled for this week and this weekend.
"The scheduling of our football game or any of
our athletic events is the least of our worries. We feel for the families
in New York and Washington, and it's hard to fathom," said Purdue athletic
director Morgan Burke, who will meet with the other 10 Big Ten athletic
directors today to discuss events scheduled for later this week and
this weekend.
On Tuesday, Burke spoke with Kevin White, the athletic
director at Notre Dame, where all sporting activities were shut down.
However, they did not discuss canceling Saturday's 2:30 p.m. game.
Burke didn't stop any practices at Purdue Tuesday.
However, the Purdue volleyball team's Tuesday night match at Valparaiso
was canceled earlier in the day. No make-up match has been rescheduled.
Although Purdue went on with athletic life the
best it could, preparing for a weekend that is scheduled to include
home football, soccer, cross country and volleyball contests, sporting
events across the nation were canceled or rescheduled, including plenty
of collegiate sporting events.
"The games themselves are insignificant in
the face of what has happened," NCAA president Cedric Dempsey said
in a statement released by the NCAA. "Our focus is entirely on
the safety of student-athletes, athletics personnel and fans. We urge
schools to make sound decisions about proceeding with contests today
and in the coming days."
The NCAA has decided to allow individual conferences
to determine whether to go on with regularly scheduled events.
The commissioners from all the Division I-A conferences,
including the Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern, discussed
their options for staging this weekend’s games during a conference
call several hours after the attacks.
"We will do what's the right thing for the fans
and the student-athletes," Burke said. "A football game is a pretty
insignificant deal when something like this has happened."
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Officials
to discuss games' cancellations
SPORTS DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111
ext. 251
Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki
Assistant sports
editor:
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