After two days of uncertainty, college football fans in Madison finally know one thing for sure.
There will be no football game this Saturday.
That news came today, when University of Wisconsin Athletics Director Pat Richter and football Head Coach Barry Alvarez made the announcement that the Badgers' game against Western Kentucky will not be played due to this week's tragedies in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Wisconsin also cancelled all of its other sporting events for this weekend.
'It doesn't surprise me,' Alvarez said. 'We tried to prepare our players and coaches that this was obviously a possibility.'
UW's announcement came on the heels of Thursday's decision by the National Football League and Major League Baseball that all games would be cancelled through Sunday.
After a conference call with the commissioners of all 10 Division I-A conferences Wednesday, the Big Ten allowed its schools to make the final decision on whether to postpone their respective games.
Richter and Alvarez met with several school officials, including Chancellor John Wiley, and discussed the issue Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
'It was a school decision,' Richter said. 'I think that's basically how it was all the time.'
Every other Division I-A school has made the same decision as the Badgers, as all 116 colleges have either postponed or canceled their football games for this weekend.
The landmark decision marks the first time Division I-A college football will not play any scheduled games during a regular-season weekend.
As of press time, Division I-AA schools were still scheduled to play each other.
Wisconsin was one of the last schools to announce game postponements. The Big East, Atlantic Coast and Pac-10 conferences all canceled conference games Wednesday, while the other seven conferences made announcements Thursday afternoon.
Still, Richter said UW had come to its decision by the time NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue cancelled this weekend's NFL games.
'I would say that our decision was made before the NFL made their decision,' Richter said.
Richter also said he discussed the issue with Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig before making a final decision.
The decision to postpone the game was unanimous, but Alvarez said he had to prepare his players as if it were any other normal week.
'Our players wanted to play, yet they understand and they support the decision,' Alvarez said.
UW players will have off today and Sunday, but the Badgers will practice briefly Saturday morning.
'We'll treat this week as close to a bye as we can,' Alvarez said.
While the Badgers are trying to continue with their everday schedule as normal, they still don't know if they will be playing this game anytime soon.
In early discussions with Western Kentucky, Wisconsin identified two possible make-up dates for the game'Sept. 29, a week after the Badgers open the Big Ten season against Penn State, and Dec. 1, a week after Wisconsin's final regular-season game in Minnesota.
'We also had some preliminary discussions about the feasibility and practicality of rescheduling, and it appears there were a couple of alternatives that might be developed with a lot of discussion with some other people involved,' Richter said.
Still, it may be too early for the Badgers to speculate about their future schedule. All UW sports are postponed until at least Monday, but after that, it's anybody's guess as to when college football will return.
'I think of the reasons for the cancelation, (some) of those [will] exist next week,' Richter said.
