The decision was going to be made public at 3 p.m. Wednesday, then 4 p.m. Finally, following a day of negotiations, Notre Dame and Purdue announced at 6 p.m. that their football game, scheduled for Saturday, had been postponed until Dec. 1.
Most games involving Big Ten teams, including Illinois’ home contest against Louisville, will go forward as originally planned. Even in light of the terrorist attacks that hit the eastern United States on Tuesday, the conference schools mostly decided to adhere to their schedules.
There were deviations. Northwestern’s Saturday home opener against Navy was canceled; Penn State and Ohio State already had chosen to postpone their games.
“In a nutshell, the magnitude of this travesty warrants a pretty significant mourning period for the nation,” Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White said.
Irish coach Bob Davie didn’t learn of the postponement until after practice Wednesday. It was not unwelcome news.
“Obviously there are bigger things going on in this country than we have going on right here,” Davie said. “We need to take a deep breath right now.”
Northwestern’s decision was reached late Wednesday afternoon while the Wildcats were busy on the practice field.
“In light of the circumstances, it was a unique opponent,” said athletic director Rick Taylor. “It wasn’t as if we were playing a school from the Midwest. It was the United States Naval Academy and we were very sensitive to the fact that the Pentagon was damaged and I’m sure they lost some naval personnel in the damage. It was an easy decision for us to join them and cancel the game.”
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Wildcats coach Randy Walker said the team was eager to play, “but I understand the significance of the situation and I think it’s the right decision.”
Northwestern chose to cancel all its weekend sporting events, which also included the Wildcat Classic women’s volleyball tournament that was to include Army. The Wildcats’ next football game will be Sept. 22 at Duke.
“We’re all disappointed as a football team [to not be playing],” quarterback Zak Kustok said. “But we know there’s a lot bigger world out there than Northwestern football, and things that are a lot more important than us playing football.”
The game cannot be rescheduled because the schools do not have mutual open dates and Navy traditionally ends its season against Army. But if Northwestern can find another opponent in a similar situation there is a chance it will add an 11th game after its Thanksgiving Day season finale against Illinois.
“My first impulse is yes,” Walker said. “But you also have to look at where you’re at at that time of the season. Your Big Ten season is over. Does the game mean anything? We want to play today because we want to play today. Do we want to play Dec 1?”
Illinois decided to go ahead with Saturday’s home game against Louisville, but athletic director Ron Guenther declined to return phone calls seeking comment. Instead, Guenther and school chancellor Nancy Cantor issued a joint statement.
“It gives us an opportunity to come together as a community to remember our loss and assert our unity as a nation,” the statement read.
“We do this very appropriately by gathering in Memorial Stadium, itself a monument to loss and ultimate hope,” the release continued.
The last Illinois game to be postponed was Nov. 23, 1963, the day after the assassination of President Kennedy. The game against Michigan was played five days later.