Despite hurricane, Rutgers-Tulane football showdown set for Saturday

New Orleans, LA, United States (4E Sports) – The Rutgers-Tulane football showdown will push through as scheduled Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Superdome, despite President Obama’s declaration of Louisiana as a federal disaster area due to Hurricane Isaac.

Superdome chief Doug Thornton said the stadium survived the storm, suffering only superficial damage to surrounding signs, banners and landscaping.

“The stadium never lost power and its roof never leaked. He said key Superdome personnel are returning to work Thursday to get the stadium ready,” Thornton said.

Tulane officials, however, said they will make the final decision after evaluating the condition of the community and confirming whether the airport would be ready for Rutgers’ charter flight Friday.

The same goes for LSU, whose associate athletic director Vincent Herb said a final decision has not yet been made and contingency plans have been considered.

“We want to make sure we make the right decisions and do it right,” Vincent said. “We’ll have that information as soon as we possibly can when a final decision is made.”

LSU is scheduled to play North Texas Saturday at Tiger Stadium, which suffered no damage. Winds blew down some traffic and parking signs around the stadium and there were some electricians at the stadium, but most of the lights appeared to be working. There were power outages around the campus.

“We think that Tiger Stadium is ready,” Vincent said. “What we have to do and what we’re doing now is gathering information on the availability of law enforcement, the availability of marshals and ticket takers. What are the roadways that are closed? We’re consulting with university and local and state officials just to assess all the damage.”

Vincent said if they can’t play Saturday, they will look to reschedule.

Other games have been affected by the storm. The game between Nicholls State and Oregon State has been postponed and no makeup date has been determined while

Stephen F. Austin’s match against Southwestern Oklahoma would be delayed 24 hours, from Thursday evening to Friday evening.

Two games scheduled for Thursday night also were delayed with Texas-San Antonio versus South Alabama in Mobile will be played Saturday afternoon and the matchgame between Texas A&M and Louisiana Tech in Shreveport, La., was rescheduled for Oct. 13.

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