Poor Timing : Loyola and USF Will Play Sunday During Super Bowl

Loyola Marymount and San Francisco probably won’t set any attendance records when they play their West Coast Conference basketball game Sunday at Gersten Pavilion, unless it’s for the smallest crowd.

Tipoff is at 2 p.m., slightly more than an hour before the start of Super Bowl XXVII. Most of the second half will be played while the Super Bowl is in progress.

“It’s ridiculous,” Loyola Coach John Olive said. “How many people do you think are going to leave their Super Bowl parties?”

At USF’s request, the game was rescheduled from Friday to accommodate the Dons’ trip to Duke. USF was defeated by the seventh-ranked Blue Devils, 117-73, Tuesday night.

Bruce Meyers, Loyola’s sports information director, said USF requested the change because of academic reasons. Had the Dons played Friday, their players would have missed an entire week of classes.

Meyers said the game could not be played Sunday night because San Francisco was unable to get a flight out of LAX at a time when many people in town for the Super Bowl will be leaving Los Angeles. A Sunday morning game would have been a hardship for both teams, which play games Saturday night.

Meyers said playing opposite the Super Bowl is reminiscent of Loyola’s game on New Year’s Eve in 1990 against La Salle. The game started at 9 p.m. to accommodate national television.

“It was embarrassing,” Meyers recalled. “Not many people came.”