CHAPEL HILL, NC: Butch Davis today announced that he would suspend the 2008 college football season on Thursday and seek a delay until at least mid-November so that he could return to Washington to try to forge a consensus on a financial bailout package.

“I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama, Senator McCain, and myself,” Mr. Davis said this afternoon. “It is time for both parties as well as select football teams from the ACC to come together to solve this problem.”

"There are times for politics and there are times to rise above politics and do what’s right," Davis continued. And similarly, there are times to back away from football and refocus our efforts on restoring liquidity to the credit markets and easing the burden of foreclosure for the American people. We must give the economy time to get back on it's feet, particularly allowing the bones of the left ankle time to fully knit and return to their previous strength."

"You know, metaphorically," Davis concluded.

The Tar Heels will postpone their planned trip to Miami, as well as their plans to rotate quarterbacks; Paulus and Sexton will instead travel with Davis to the Capitol to present their plan for Congressional oversight of the proposed $700 billion in emergency sending expected to be granted to the Treasury Department.