LSU athletic director Joe Alleva spoke on 104.5 ESPN on Friday, about the postponement of the LSU-Florida game.
Alleva echoed the same sentiments as yesterday (which we wrote about in detail here), saying it would be “very difficult” to reschedule the game.
Excerpts from his Q&A are posted below and the full interview can be listened to here.
Is this game not going to happen over the next four days?
“The game is not going to happen at this point. No.”
Can you recap the conversation you had with Jeremy Foley?
“Let’s go back for a minute, I need to say this. First of all here in Louisiana we all understand how devastating a hurricane can be. We’re talking about a football game and safety. Safety has always have to be the No. 1 issue. From the very beginning, I brought up safety and what happens if this hurricane becomes really bad, as our experiences here in Louisiana have shown in the past.”
What gave Florida confidence that they were going to play the game?
“That’s about right. They thought it was going to stay out on the coast. That’s what they said. They thought it was going to be OK. From our experience, they knew first responders and policeman would not going to be available, because whenever there’s a storm you’re going to lose all those important people. All of those things I don’t think were taking into proper consideration.”
Can you respond to ESPN’s report? How has a game that has a game that LSU has scheduled now coming into discussion when LSU has done nothing to move its schedule?
“That’s a flat out lie. No one has contacted me. That’s just a perfect example of terrible journalism. He did not call me. He didn’t call Michael Bonnette. He didn’t call anybody. He just tweets out that garbage. That’s an absolute lie. That’s just another example of somebody trying to get clicks on their website.”
Can you explain the insurance policy for college football games?
“Yeah. We were fortunate that we had that policy. Since that time we have adopted a policy throughout the whole league where every school has it now. Florida should be able recoup, I would assume. I don’t know how Florida is going to handle it. We offered refunds to everybody [for the McNeese game]. I would assume they would. Then you could recoup the amount of revenue that you lost, because you lost the game.”
Is it a concern to you that LSU had contingency plans put in place, but the rest of the conference did not?
“Well, I have an unbelievably good staff. As the weather was looking bad, and things were happening my staff was on the phone with the airline company and the all the people that are necessary to secure that we could get to Florida, had we been allowed to. We all those things in place. We still had a charter plane. We still had buses to get to Florida on Sunday if we were allowed to. That’s what I want to make the point mostly about here, we had everything in place. That’s what I want our fans to know. My staff did a tremendous job of getting everything ready and we were ready to play. At the end of the day, we had to respect the commissioner’s decision and Florida’s concern for safety. And having going through hurricanes, we know that can be an issue.”
Is there an opportunity for a special vote to be put in place now that you’re missing a game and Florida will be missing a game?
“I think it’s going to have to be a topic of discussion for sure as we go through the rest of the season. No doubt.”
The SEC tie-breaker is determined on winning percentage and not in terms of wins and losses?
“I think it’s based on winning percentage and head-to-head competition. That winning percentage is something that has to be discussed.
Ultimately, do you think this game will be made up?
“I think it’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very difficult. That’s all I’m going to say about it right now. The scenarios that I see down the road would require some serious changing in schedules.”
