Staff report
The Penn State Nittany Lions are supposed to play Minnesota in Minneapolis on Saturday, Oct. 7.
But now it seems like Major League Baseball could get in the way.
The possibility is growing that the day of the game will be changed to accommodate the Minnesota Twins’ probable playoff appearance. The University of Minnesota football team shares the Metrodome with the Twins.
With the Twins likely to earn either an American League wildcard spot or a division title, the chances become greater that a baseball playoff game would be scheduled at the Metrodome on Oct. 7.
And Major League Baseball will not allow another event to share the Metrodome on the day of a playoff game.
The Nittany Lions and Twins played in the dome the same day two years ago, but the Twins’ game went into extra innings and had to be suspended until the following day to give time for the field to be converted for football.
Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire was irate.
This all means that Penn State’s game could be rescheduled for Thursday Oct. 5 or pushed all the way to the end of the season, on Saturday Nov. 25 — two days after Thanksgiving.
Expect a decision soon, since officials apparently do not want to wait until the end of baseball’s regular season on Oct. 1 to make a last-moment decision.
