William and Mary cancels Saturday’s football game, much to the black Bears’ dismay.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

While Hurricane Isabel is long gone from the Eastern seaboard, the effects of the storm linger.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the College of William and Mary announced it had canceled Saturday’s football game against the University of Maine, citing unsafe playing conditions and an unsafe campus area.

The campus, according to the release, will remain closed until Sunday.

“In the wake of the disaster that Isabel has created on the William and Mary campus, the situation is such that we have had to cancel the home football game against the University of Maine,” said William and Mary athletic director Terry Driscoll. “Logistically, all the factors involved in securing another off-campus location for the game is prohibitive at this short notice.”

In a response to the William and Mary statement, Maine AD Patrick Nero issued his own statement, claiming that all efforts to relocate the game that he made were, in effect, shot down.

“While being sympathetic and understanding to the situation at William and Mary, this decision to cancel seems inconsistent with other teams on the William and Mary campus,” said Nero. “The University of Maine has made every effort to assist William & Mary with options for playing this game including alternate dates, an alternate site in the state of Virginia that was available, as well as offering to pick up all costs for William & Mary to travel to Orono to play the game here this Saturday and donating all game proceeds to a fund for hurricane relief. William & Mary has declined all of these offers.”

Reached for comment on Tuesday night, Nero said the university is going a step further and asking the Atlantic-10 to rule the game a forfeit win for Maine.

“Because we feel that we gave them ample opportunity to play this game, we have not formally agreed to the cancellation,” said Nero. “On Thursday, all of the ADs in the A-10 will meet and we will vote on the issue.”

According to Nero, there wouldn’t be such a big problem if William and Mary had been uniform in dealing with all of its athletic programs.

“They managed to reschedule soccer games, among other things,” said Nero. “It’s been 10 days since the storm hit as of Saturday. Richmond is playing a home game on Saturday, and that’s less than an hour away from William and Mary. We reached an agreement with Richmond to play our game there on Sunday, but William and Mary still said no.”

William and Mary played an away game at Northeastern last Saturday, just three days after the storm hit.

“One of things I worry about, too, is the precedent this will set,” said Nero. “What if this was the last week in November and the game decided the championship? I think the league would step in and give a few options, but say the game would have to be played. Just because it’s at the beginning of the season doesn’t mean it should be treated differently.”

Maine’s next game will be on Saturday, October 4, when the Black Bears host Richmond.

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