One question -- should they play the games? -- has elicited varying answers from college football coaches and administrators across the country.

In the wake of Tuesday's mass terrorism that rocked America's largest city and the central nervous system of the country's military, it remains uncertain whether college sports, and in particular this weekend's college football games, should be played. But as college administrators huddle with NCAA officials to decide whether the games should be canceled, coaches offered their solicited opinions on just that question.

"I hope we play this game; if we don't it's playing right into their hands," Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday morning, hours after the two hijacked passenger jets crashed into and eventually toppled the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York. A third hijacked jetliner was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary holds a similar view. O'Leary's 11th-ranked Yellow Jackets are scheduled to meet the sixth-ranked Seminoles on Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla.

"It's really unbelievable that something like that could happen," O'Leary said in Atlanta. "But we need to continue on."

Two football games scheduled for Thursday night -- Penn State at Virginia and Ohio at North Carolina State -- have been postponed as part of the Atlantic Coast Conference's announcement that all intercollegiate athletic events though Thursday involving ACC member institutions would be postponed. The Ohio-N.C. State game was rescheduled for Nov. 24, though no makeup date has been announced for the Penn State-Virginia contest.

A third Thursday football game, Texas Tech at UTEP, is pending, and the NCAA Division I football conference commissioners held an afternoon teleconference to decide what to do with college football games this week. Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, told ESPN.com that his organization is taking the position that if any game is canceled this weekend, they all should be canceled.

In Gainesville, Fla., where the Florida Gators are preparing for Saturday's scheduled game against Tennessee, Gators coach Steve Spurrier said he had other things on his mind besides football.

"It's a sad day. Our country has been attacked," he said. "To tell you the truth, when I saw the video of that plane hitting the World Trade Center, I had a hard time going back to football. How we'll all feel tomorrow, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Whoever makes the decisions on the game, we'll do whatever they say.

"I pretty much watched it all morning. Football doesn't seem too important right now," Spurrier said as tears welled in his eyes.

Southeastern Conference athletic directors met by conference call with commissioner Roy Kramer late Tuesday morning, according to Florida AD Jeremy Foley.

"There has been no decision made yet," Foley said. "We've been in communication with the NCAA, so it's really a wait-and-see. Not an individual institution or conference decision, but probably a national decision that involves not only college football, but all professional sports.

"To try and guess now would not be appropriate," he said. "We have another conference call tomorrow morning and then we'll go from there."

A women's volleyball game between Florida and Florida State scheduled for Tuesday had been canceled. "We just didn't feel it was right to be in competition with all that is going on," Foley said.

Though the ACC postponed the two football games scheduled Thursday, no decision has been made yet regarding Saturday's game.

"The safety of the nation is the No. 1 thing on everyone's mind," Georgia Tech quarterback George Godsey said. "It's a shame that something like this happens, no matter what week it happens. It really puts things into perspective."

Safety Chris Young said: "It's scary. It's sad that things like this happen. But you have to live each day on a day-by-day basis. It's a blessing to be here each day and that's how you have to approach it. We're going to feel sorry for all the people hurt by this. We'll keep everyone in our prayers. But we can't let this distract us."

But Florida defensive end Alex Brown said he thought now was the time for sports to step to the sidelines.

"I think it's kind of selfish of us to sit around and talk and think about a football game coming up because people have lost their lives, lost their families and we're sitting around here wondering if there's going to be a football game or not on Saturday," Brown said. "It's just devastating to sit back and watch something like that.

"As much as I love football, as much as I love this game, today's events really help put into perspective what's more important," he said. "There are things out there above and beyond football. I mean, if you lost a family member, or you had relatives in New York, would you be sitting here talking about a game?"

ESPN.com's David Albright, Daniel Dodd and Wayne Drehs contributed to this report.