The Minnesota baseball program announced Wednesday that it will be unable to play its home games in February and March at the Metrodome, whose roof collapsed unde the weight of heavy snowfall on Dec. 12. This is awful news for the Golden Gophers and the other college and high school teams in the area, who rely on the dome in the cold winter months during the early part of the season.

About 300 college baseball games were scheduled for February and March in the dome, a facility official told the Associated Press. Typically in February, games are played from 8 a.m. to midnight several days per week.

Minnesota will work with the programs who it is scheduled to play in the Metrodome in the month of March to come up with alternate plans. Those plans will be revealed once the Gophers have worked with the respective teams on the final details.

The games that are affected by this announcement are the annual Legends and Pro Alumni Game on Feb. 5; Minnesota's game against Washington State on Thursday, March 3; all six games of the Dairy Queen Classic; all six games of the Metrodome Tournament; a pair of games against North Dakota on March 22-23; a three-game series against Cal Poly on March 25-27; and a two-game series against Cal State Bakersfield on March 29-30.

"With 32 games at the Metrodome, the well-being of the facility obviously has a big impact on our program," Minnesota coach John Anderson said in a statement. "At this point, we are working with the opposing teams that are affected to make alternate arrangements. With the recent developments in this situation, we do not have any definitive answers regarding those plans. As soon as we finalize those arrangements we will release them publicly."

The Metrodome has not made any announcements regarding the use of the facility past the month of March. The Gophers have 16 games in the Metrodome in the months of April and May, including four home Big Ten series.