Tragedy, by definition, is never a good thing, but sometimes continuing on in the face of tragedy is the best way to recover.
Despite Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, NCAA officials Wednesday urged conferences and institutions to make their own decisions about playing upcoming athletic events.
However, the NCAA did state that the White House has encouraged a “return to normalcy” across the country, including the playing of athletic events.
“We want to assist in showing the resiliency of the American spirit,” said Robert Lawless, chair of the NCAA Executive Committee.
NCAA president Cedric Dempsey said he would feel comfortable with the decision each conference and institution makes.
“Decisions about playing regular-season games have always rested with our members,” Dempsey said. “We believe that college administrators are in the best position to make these decisions after considering input from their constituencies. It’s our role to provide guidance, not mandates.”
Conference USA, home to University of Memphis athletics, has decided for now that this weekend’s football games will go on as scheduled. However, a conference spokesperson Wednesday said C-USA has yet to decide whether other events will go on as scheduled, pending President Bush’s decision on a national day of mourning.
The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Mid-American, Mountain West and WAC conferences also decided to go back to business as usual for the most part, while the Big East and Pac-10 postponed their league football games. The ACC had not yet reached a decision late Wednesday afternoon on whether to play games.
Meanwhile, the NCAA executive committee also voted to donate $5 million to unnamed disaster relief efforts on behalf of all NCAA member institutions.
All institutions proceeding with contests over the next several days were also instructed to make allowances for operations and security procedures on their campuses.
“It’s also important for our member institutions to extend some form of public recognition of the tragedy at their events, either by a moment of silence, a statement or some other kind of activity,” Lawless said. “Finally, we encourage our institutions to focus on the individual circumstances of student-athletes and staff who may be personally affected by this tragedy.”
