UF, LSU work on new date
One option, with SEC’s help, would be to play game Nov. 19.
GAINESVILLE — With thi s year’s Florida-LSU game, or i g i nal ly s c heduled f or today, now postponed, the t wo schools and the SEC will try to play the game at a later date.
One o pt i o n i s Nov. 1 9, when the Gators and Tigers have nonconference matchups scheduled against Presbyterian and South Alabama.
The SEC could pay for both contract buyouts and use its lost-revenue insurance policy for LSU losing a home game.
“Those conversations will all be handled within the league,” Gators Athletics Director Jeremy Foley said Thursday. “The University of Florida is 100 percent behind whatever scenario they can come up with that allows this game to be played. If the 19th is one of those dates that allows it to work, the Gators will be there.
“If there’s some other scenario out there that I have no idea what the league may be working on, we’re going to be 100 percent behind playing. It’s not an issue about Florida not wanting to play LSU. I think and I hope everybody understands that.”
Foley said the buyout for the Presbyterian game would be a little less than $500,000, but a Florida spokesman said that figure is not official. The Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate reported the South Alabama buyout is $1.5 million, and that LSU makes around $3 million per home game.
So the SEC and its insurance policy would have to potentially account for $5 million in total.
“T h e money i s n o t a n issue,” Foley said. “Can it be worked out? Those are conversations you probably need to hold with the Southeastern Conference. If it can be worked out, we will be thrilled and excited and ready to play that football game.”
Fans are understandably upset by the postponement — and probable cancellation.
Weather concerns have forced more than 3 million residents of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina out of their homes.
Yet, in Columbia, S.C., the game between the Gamecocks and Bulldogs has been rescheduled for a Sunday afternoon kickoff that has put a spotlight on Florida’s refusal to make a similar move. Many have asked: “Why didn’t Florida reschedule the game for Sunday?” (The skies are expected to be much clearer, after all).
SEC Country reached out to an expert on the subject: Jay Logan, the associate athletic director for event and facility management at Mississippi State University. Why not Sunday? For one, Logan explained, it takes hundreds of on-site s t af f — t i c ket t akers, bag checkers, ushers, parking a t t e ndant s , c o nc e s s i o ns workers, etc. — to create a safe, functioning environment. A storm as large as Hurricane Matthew not only interrupts potential travel, but creates a domino effect that’s impossible to plan for.
“Just because the weather’s good (on game day) does not mean that everything is good elsewhere,” Logan said. “There may be people who need some basic neces- sities because they’ve been relocated from wherever they are. And people may be able to move back into their homes and have no issue, but there are a lot of people who may not be, and some of the people working the games may be having to take care of those people.”
One subset that would n e e d t o p r i o r i t i z e p u b - lic needs over the needs of the football team: Law enforcement and emergency responders.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who previously said she could not envision the Georgia-South Carolina game being played in Columbia, told the Gamecocks that state troopers would not be available during Sunday’s game.
T h o s e a re p e o p l e yo u can’t simply replace on short notice.
“You would not feel comfortable just putting somebody in a position — if that person was not trained, not qualified to do that job — just to be able to have a game,” Logan said.