|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Conferences come to their senses
Updated: Thursday September 13, 2001 8:19 PM
They meant well. Officials in the several conferences that originally decided not to postpone their games Saturday believed that they were carrying out the wishes of President George W. Bush. The games would help America return to normalcy. They would illustrate that terrorism could not stop our way of life. But the college officials couldn't overcome the decision of the NFL not to play. Once commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Thursday morning that the pro game would not take the field Sunday, the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Western Athletic conferences realized that their patriotic impulses had to be quieted. Over the course of the day, game by game, then league by league, the college schedule for Saturday disappeared. As time goes by, they will understand that they did themselves and the country a favor by not playing. At some point very soon, firefighters and rescue workers on the southern tip of Manhattan won't be finding survivors. There will be nothing left to turn aside the grim reality of thousands of bodies being exhumed from the rubble. The inspiring news could come to an end as soon as this weekend, and when it happens the last thing anyone will want to see is smiling, leaping cheerleaders in Gainesville. Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, as cool a head as there is in college athletics, was an assistant commissioner in the Pac-8 on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963. The memory of how the sports world responded to the Kennedy assassination guided him this week. "We decided fairly quickly after the event that we would not play," he said. "Within a couple of hours, we began to understand the magnitude of what the country was facing. We had never had a tragedy like that before and we didn't know how to react. It became apparent that it would be inappropriate [to play this weekend]. The NFL has always regretted playing on that Sunday." The hijackings occurred on Tuesday, four days before the games, not 48 hours before. The conferences that had wanted to move forward seemingly had their stances bolstered when President Bush announced Friday would be the national day of prayer and remembrance; SEC officials took that as a sign that meaningful respect could be paid before kickoffs would have begun at 11 a.m. Saturday. The SEC had announced that it would give $1 million from gate receipts to a fund for the victims; monetary donations would have been collected at every stadium; and the conference was investigating the possibility of setting up blood drives at each game. The league had planned for teams to come together on the field before kickoff for a collective moment of silence. Though those plans temporarily have been scuttled, the SEC will heighten security down the road. In the future, says Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley, every school will have police dogs comb its stadium before the game. The league also discussed banning cars from parking within 50 or 100 yards of a stadium on game day. If the SEC and Big 12 decide to make up the lost matchups, they will have to move back their championship games one week. That means are logistical nightmares, true, but it is work worth doing. The possibility that the games will not be played exists, but I suspect it is a slim one. Tennessee and Florida must play for financial and competitive reasons; how do you crown an SEC East champion without those two squaring off? There may be no right or wrong answers under the circumstances. As we have learned in the last couple of days, there are very few answers at all. But there are questions of taste and of respect. I don't believe enough time has elapsed to play the games. The degree of shock across the nation remains palpable. The decision not to play may not have been the first instinct, but it is the correct one. Right now, games don't seem appropriate at all.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
