LSU will not move its home game against South Alabama on Nov. 19, athletic director Joe Alleva said.
Nov. 19 has been targeted as a makeup date for LSU to play No. 18 Florida, but Alleva quickly refuted swapping LSU’s Senior Day to play the Gators.
“One thing we’re going to hold very firm on: We have a home game Nov. 19,” Alleva said. “Our fans and this city deserves a home game.”
The game between Florida and LSU was postponed because of Hurricane Matthew, and a reschedule date hasn’t been decided on yet. LSU is scheduled to play South Alabama and Florida is slated to play Presbyterian on Nov. 19.
LSU’s season would end with three straight road trips to No. 22 Arkansas, Florida and No. 6 Texas A&M, if the game is moved to Nov. 19.
Alleva adamantly stated on Monday that option is not possible for LSU.
Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley reiterated in a statement that Florida wants to play the aforementioned game.
“We understand the importance of playing this game, and we want to play this game,”
Foley said.
The other options for LSU would require a lot of cooperation from other teams in the league.
LSU has an open date on Oct. 29, when the Tigers could make the trip to Gainesville, but the Gators, however, are scheduled to meet Georgia in Jacksonville.
That would require Georgia to agree to moving its game versus Florida to Oct. 22, something the Bulldogs might not be in favor of.
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, said moving the game would be “impractical.”
“It’s really impractical. We have over 15,000 temporary seats placed in the stadium just for that game,” McGarity said on the Paul Finebaum show. “We have an off week next week and things are in place to play Florida on the 29th. It’s such a traditional game, with 40,000 Georgia fans and 40,000 Florida fans.”
If that move goes through, LSU would play a game before facing No. 1 Alabama, who also has a bye week. However, Alleva would want Alabama to play on that day.
“I’m not favoring playing a game on that day unless Alabama plays a game on that day,” Alleva said.
Another option Alleva pointed out is to play on Dec. 3 — the day of the SEC Championship Game.
That however, would bring in the issue of television contracts and could push back a selection from the College Football Playoff committee.
“I don’t know if that’s going to be an option,” Alleva said about playing on Dec. 3. “I’ll get back to what I said, I think it’s going to be very difficult to reschedule this game.”
Time will tell if and when a resolution will be made among the schools and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, but the two sides “continue to work” for a solution regarding the postponed game.
“The presidents and athletics directors agreed on Thursday that the schools and SEC Office would make every effort to find a scheduling solution to their postpone,” Sankey said in a statement. “We continue to work with the universities to play this game.”
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva speaks to the press about the changes being made to LSU staffing and about new interim head coach Ed Orgeron on Monday September 26, 2016, in the press conference room in the LSU Athletic Administration building.
