Hell may freeze over Sunday, but many Louisianaians will be making the trip to sunny Miami to watch the New Orleans Saints play in their first Super Bowl in franchise history.
 
Sunday’s game will be the most important the Saints have ever played, and hundreds of University students will be heading east to Miami or New Orleans to be part of history.”It’s surreal,” said Stephen Sewell, business management senior who said Super Bowl tickets seemed to magically fall into his father’s hands. “It still hasn’t hit me, and I don’t think it will until I get on the plane and see those other Saints fans.”Many students unable to travel as far as Miami are planning to head to the Big Easy for what will undoubtedly be one of the country’s biggest parties.Jill Hayden, mathematics sophomore, said she plans to go to New Orleans on Sunday. She said getting back in time for Monday classes will be difficult, though some of her professors have canceled class because of it.”This is the biggest game in football history for Louisiana, and a Louisiana university should respect that,” she said.The University has not made Monday an official holiday, but many students and faculty are making the tough call whether to hold classes at all.CUTTING CLASSUniversity Registrar Robert Doolos said the University as a whole has no intentions to cancel class Monday, but class schedules are left up to individual instructors.”We will have regular class on Monday,” said Amy Campbell, physics and astronomy instructor. “I don’t have formal assignments in class, so students will not miss a quiz or homework.”Sgt. Bryan Allen, military science instructor, said he canceled his Monday courses after realizing most students wouldn’t attend.”The kids are going to do what they want to do,” Allen said. “When I polled the students, 80 percent said they wouldn’t be there.”Allen said he wasn’t interested in instructing a class without the bulk of his students. “I know what this means to a lot of these kids from New Orleans, and yes, I’m a Saints fan,” Allen said.Mathematics professor Kwang Ju Choi originally scheduled a calculus test for Monday, but pushed up the test to today after fielding complaints from his students.Many students are planning to skip classes despite different faculty expectations.Ally Champagne, psychology junior, said she witnessed the Saints’ disappointing 2006 NFC Championship loss to the Chicago Bears. She said she wouldn’t miss this trip to Miami for anything.”I’m worried about missing classes, but I’ve waited so long for this,” Champagne said.Meghan Spell, human ecology senior, said she will watch the Super Bowl from her hotel on Bourbon Street and skip class Monday — regardless of the assignments she has due or her class participation grade.”It has taken the Saints [43 seasons] to get here,” she said. “I’m not going to let one class on Monday stop me from reveling the moment. It’s our time to shine, and we’re definitely going to let the good times roll.”Jason Newton, engineering junior, said he’ll leave for New Orleans soon to watch the Super Bowl on Bourbon Street. He said he doesn’t plan on making it to class Monday.”I don’t know if we’ll be out of the bar by class time, much less out of the French Quarter,” Newton said.Public schools in New Orleans are considering closing schools Monday, and Indianapolis’ public school system will delay its schedule by one hour Monday morning to “give bus drivers more time to get to work the morning after the Super Bowl,” according to ESPN.New Orleans’ higher education institutions, such as the University of New Orleans, Tulane University and Xavier University, will remain open.IN NEW ORLEANSWith Mardi Gras and the Super bowl so close, New Orleans is already filled to capacity as the nation’s revelers flock to the city.Angelina Ponder, hotel director for the Ramada Plaza Hotel on Bourbon Street, said the hotel rapidly filled its few vacant rooms following the Saints’ NFC Championship victory.Ponder said a few rooms are still available, but the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras seasons are filling hotels throughout the city.No extra flights are scheduled into New Orleans this weekend, but Louis Armstrong International is posting six extra flights to Miami today. The number of Miami-bound seats increased from 700 to about 1,700 today, said Michelle Wilcut, public relations manager for the airport.Champagne said she won’t return to New Orleans until Tuesday because return tickets were only about $90 —  as opposed to about $350 for Monday flights.——Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]