The September 11th attack
San Jose State balks at moving game
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
A final decision is expected Monday on whether the Western Athletic Conference football game between Hawai'i and Nevada will be rescheduled for next Saturday in Reno, Nev.
People familiar with the situation said a chief obstacle is convincing San Jose State, which is scheduled to play host to Nevada next Saturday, to relinquish that date to UH.
UH and Nevada officials say the presidents of the 10 WAC schools will try to resolve the matter during a conference call. UH president Evan Dobelle said he has not been told of the call, but said, "I would like to think we can pull together on this."
"We're going by the assumption that we're playing Nevada next week," UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida said.
It appeared the game, postponed from today because of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., would be moved to next Saturday if UH officials were able to secure travel arrangements to Reno.
Yesterday morning, Yoshida announced the Warriors had booked reservations on charter and commercial flights for their 98-member travel party.
"It looks like we have the seats," Yoshida said.
Yesterday afternoon, Nevada athletic director Chris Ault announced the UH-Nevada game would be played next Saturday.
But by yesterday afternoon, the WAC had not issued its official blessing. WAC commissioner Karl Benson told The Advertiser that moving the UH-Nevada game to next Saturday "has yet to receive conference approval."
San Jose State officials are opposed to moving their game against Nevada from next Saturday to Nov. 10, when both teams have byes.
Moving the game would mean the Spartans would not play their first home game until Oct. 13.
"We're adamantly opposed to not playing Nevada next Saturday," San Jose State president Robert Caret told the San Jose Mercury News yesterday.
"We are absolutely opposed to it," said Caret. "And we'll fight it tooth and nail."
UH and Nevada do not have any common open dates through the Dec. 1 end to college football's regular season. If they cannot meet next week, Nevada will not play its home opener until Oct. 6 and Hawai'i will have a three-week break from last Saturday's game against Montana to the Sept. 29 home game against Rice.
Dobelle, who favors the Warriors playing next Saturday, said UH has agreed to make sacrifices in the best interest of the league. "If I were the president of San Jose State, I wouldn't be happy, but I would put it in perspective," he said.
