LSU did everything it could to play No. 18 Florida, according to LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva — whether it was in Gainesville or Tiger Stadium.
Florida officials had been monitoring Hurricane Matthew, currently a Category Four storm, which is projected to hit part of Florida’s coast this weekend.
University of Florida officials were in contact with Alleva since Tuesday about the status of the storm. Alleva said when he spoke with Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley the chances of the Tigers and Gators playing were still high, on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Foley again spoke with Alleva, but mentioned the possibility of the kickoff time being delayed.
But on Thursday, everything ““fell apart.”
“I want our fans to know, that LSU made every attempt to try and play this game,” Alleva said.” We offered to go to Gainesville on Sunday. We offered to fly in there Sunday morning. Play the game and fly back Sunday night.”
Ultimately the decision to postpone the game came down to a safety issue, as first responders would be attending to the Gainesville community and would not be able to work a football game.
Alleva offered a solution: play the game on Sunday in front of no one.
“I suggested that we played the game in front of nobody if there was no police available,” Alleva said. “Their whole concern was safety. There was no police … I’m sympathetic what to he [Jeremy Foley] said.”
Safety of the players, stadium workers and first responders was also an issue for Foley.
“We want to make sure people are safe and we do all the right things for the right reasons,” Foley said. “Would’ve loved to play this football game. Today the decision was made on our end that we can not play this game in Gainesville Saturday or Sunday, nor were willing to put this football team on the road under the same circumstances.”
The University of Florida canceled its classes for the rest of the week on Wednesday, but a decision wasn’t made until Thursday about the postponement on the LSU-Florida game.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey ultimately made the decision on the game.
But Foley said, university officials did not try to “drag out” the decision process.
“The timing is what it is,” Foley said about the decision to postpone the game. “Nobody tried to drag this out. Nobody didn’t want to make a decision. Just a lot of things to consider. Certainly the storm changing it’s track in my opinion and the opinion of the experts. Certainly, the timing worked as good as it could.”
For LSU, its chance to appear in the SEC Championship are decreased if the game was not made up.
Even if LSU were to run the table and finish the season 6-1 in conference play, another SEC West team that is 7-1 will be awarded the division crown because of a higher winning percentage.
“The team with the highest percentage of wins during regular-season Conference competition will be declared the Conference champion,” SEC bylaw 30.22.1.3 states.
LSU’s next road game won’t be until Nov. 12 against Arkansas.
If Florida and LSU were to play again, the likely scenario would be on Nov. 19 when LSU and Florida both play non-conference opponents.
But not only would LSU lose a home game, it would be on the road for three straight games to end the season, with games against Florida, No. 16 Arkansas and No. 8 Texas A&M to end the season.
Any decision about a make up game will be made by the SEC office. As of Thursday afternoon, Alleva said he hasn’t talked to anyone about rescheduling the game, refuting a report by ESPN.
“I’ve had no contact with anybody about rescheduling the game yet,” Alleva said. “I want to make that very clear. We’ll do everything we can to help the relief efforts in Florida and we’ll do anything we can here to help them move on.”
