LSU vs Florida POSTPONED due to Hurricane Matthew
Hurricane Matthew has postponed LSU’s clash with Florida at The Swamp on Saturday.
Both sides do not have an open date in common, and Florida refused to budge on moving the game to Baton Rouge for Sunday or elsewhere in the country.
“To try to put a road trip together of 150-plus people in a day and half, not knowing the condition of the roads, not knowing the conditions of the airports, trying to get equipment out there,” said Florida AD Jeremy Foley. “Again, not in the best interest of safety, not in the best interest of people that would be involved in that trip. … People in this state may be dealing with stuff that is far more significant, far more serious. So that really didn’t work, either.
“I really understand the interest in the game, people’s desire to play the game. At the end of the day, we make these decisions based on what matters, and people’s safety is what matters. That’s why the decision was made as it did. It took as long as it did because a lot of moving parts.”
If you wanted to be really unkind – and bearing in mind LSU’s loss to Auburn and Florida’s loss to Tennessee – you could suggest the date of the SEC Championship Game for it all to get played out.
As much as travelling LSU fans will probably feel annoyed about not getting to go to the game, the hotels can now be packed with the most important people – evacuees escaping one of the nastiest hurricanes in US history.
“The timing of this storm on a Friday and the uncertainly of its aftermath in the ensuing days make it particularly difficult to project the conditions for the remainder of the weekend as well as the opportunity for travel of teams and fans to or from Gainesville and other cities in Florida. I am appreciative of the cooperation of our universities on this matter,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey in a statement.
ESPN has reported that they could play on November 19th, when both LSU and Florida play ‘joke’ non-conference opponents in South Alabama and Presybterian. Cancelling the game would mean LSU pays SAU $1.5 million and Florida playing Presybterian $500,000. Rich as both sides are, it’s doubtful they’d like to do that.
So what are the options:
- The game gets played on SEC Championship Weekend, IF both teams aren’t in it. This, of course, would depend on Tennessee beating Alabama and Texas A&M, because it currently holds the tiebreakers over UGA and UF.
- Buying out South Alabama and Presybterian. Not a bad idea. Although the last time we looked, the State of Louisiana doesn’t have a lot of money and probably wouldn’t look too kindly on playing three straight away games.
- The game gets played a week after SEC Championship Weekend. Both teams probably aren’t going to be play-off teams anyway, and it will complete the schedule. And give CBS/ESPN a nice ratings boost to get a game of this magnitude watched.
- They cancel it. Which would infuriate Florida season ticket holders (it’s unlikely they’d get a rebate for the loss of the game), for whom the LSU game is the biggest game of their schedule.