SEC postpones Florida-LSU game; no makeup scheduled at this time
An official decision has been handed down by the SEC to postpone the Florida-LSU game – without a concrete plan to reschedule the game.
SEC postpones Florida-LSU game; no makeup scheduled at this time
Here is the SEC’s official statement on the move to postpone the game.
“We had a very productive phone call today with a great spirit of cooperation between the universities’ presidents and athletics directors and it became clear that the University of Florida could neither host nor travel to a game this weekend considering the circumstances,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “The developments of the hurricane in the last 24 hours, the projected magnitude of its impact and the unknown aftermath of this storm have resulted in this decision to seek another date to play the LSU-Florida game. We have to be sensitive to the possible imminent disruption to the state of Florida and in particular the Gainesville and surrounding area.”
The game was originally scheduled to be played Saturday at Noon local time. Florida released a statement Wednesday adamantly denying the game would be moving from Gainesville.
“The timing of this storm on a Friday and the uncertainty 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,” Sankey said. “I am appreciative of the cooperation of our universities on this matter.”
LSU currently holds a three-game winning streak in the annual cross-division rivalry against the Gators and have won five of the last six in the series.
Just clear the 11/19 schedules. Nobody cares about those games. Presbyterian and South Alabama only care about the paychecks.
So LSU is supposed to give up a home game and lose all the money that comes with it because Florida officials refused to move the game to another venue earlier in the week when they had the chance?
They learned their lesson from last year with the LSU/South Carolina game. Moving the game to LSU was a horrible idea because no one showed up. It was a massive amount of money lost. Moving games like this to a neutral site at the last minute is just as bad.
That and they had six days to move it last year. The flooding in Columbia happened almost two weeks before that game and the were hoping the flood waters would recede and eventually pulled the trigger with a lot more time to move the game.
It’s a bad situation no doubt but sometimes it has to be done. In 2005 LSU had to move 3 games due to Hurricanes one got moved to Arizona State and LSU was forced to lose their bye week an play 11 straight week it sucked but its what had to be done to play all the games. Florida’s officials knew the storm was coming and could’ve and should’ve made the decision to move the game elsewhere in order to get the game played.
If the S. Alabama is that important reschedule for 12/10 after the SEC championship game.
The hurricane path initially had it playing little to no impact to Florida until late yesterday. Dealing with the logistics to move the game, do you really think it could have been done properly in a day and a half, get real.
Thats a lie. The projected path has showed heavy impact along the entire state since Monday night.
What’s with the lame excuses by Gators fans? We’ve known about the path of this storm for over a week. It should’ve been moved to Tallahassee. Tampa may even be an option. Don’t know why the decision makers in Gainesville sat around with their thumbs up their butts demanding the gm be played in Gainesville??
No reason this gm should’ve been cancelled. It hurts the conf competitively for these 2 tms to get a 2nd bye and could impact div races. Move the dmn gm to Tallahassee. Crying about losing a hm gm falls on deaf ears to LSU fans who’ve moved multiple gms.
Nobleman69, you mean the path of a storm that changes constantly?
Man, you should work for NOAA because they certainly had no idea where this storm was going “over a week” ago.
They could try to have it Legion Field in Birmingham (UAB’s stadium). They don’t have a football program this year so it’s not like it’s being used. Plus Birmingham is roughly the same distance from both schools. It seats almost 72k.
What a unfortunate situation going on, hope all our brethren in SEC country stay safe. That being said, this game has to be played at some point. Would screw up the entire complexion of the standings if this game were cancelled.
Yeah it has to be played. Imagine if UT loses the next two games, and Florida doesn’t have to play one of its opponents from the West. Knoxville would melt.
Exactly why is it that UF can’t travel?
SC traveled last season on a moment’s notice. You telling me the leaders at SC are more competent than UF? You telling me that no one at UF saw a hurricane developing south of the state the last couple weeks and considered how it might impact school and athletic operations?
That’s weak.
I wouldn’t reschedule anything if I was LSU. UF is scheduled early in the season for a reason. They already play Ole Miss, Bama, Arky followed by TAMU and now they should squeeze UF in the middle of that as well?
I’m going to laugh when UF loses the SEC East by a 1/2 game.
Florida is using a lesson learned from SC moving the game to LSU last year. It was a horrible move because now LSU will not play again in Columbia until 2026. (Last time LSU came to Columbia was 2008)
The game was played in Baton Rouge but no one showed up. SC lost a MASSIVE amount of money. Ticket sales, local merchants, etc. It was nice for LSU to give proceeds of the ticket sells to SC but it didn’t come close to matching the money that would have been generated in Columbia with a full stadium.
So now what does Florida get for the game? Nothing because it won’t be played at all.
First off, you may think you are a decision maker, but get back down to earth. The schools are still in talks and a final decision of the game status are not finalized yet, so calm down.
Incorrect. Due to insurance, UF will recoup most of the money they would have made from the game. If they moved it, they would give up that option
They can’t really lose by 1/2 game because UT owns the tiebreaker. Both teams having one loss wouldn’t matter cause UT would have 1 extra win and the tiebreak anyways.
HOWEVER, what UT fans and I are worried about is if by an act of Satan himself UT lost to A&M and Bama, while Florida wins out and has 1 SEC loss (no likely, but anything is possible after this past weekend lol).
6-1 > 6-2
You guys seem to think logistics in a hurricane are easy. This is pretty short sighted.
Last year, the storms were long gone and they were waiting for flood waters to recede in a more localized area not in the area covered by a hurricane.
Look at the storm track that this storm was supposed to folow earlier in the week. It was going to be a non issue to Florida. Then, unfortunately the storm started tracking more westwardly yesterday.
PS, our home opener this year was threatened by a hurricane and it moved east and became an absolute no issue with the exception of the rain we were sitting in.
Last year the decision was made Wednesday which is when Florida should have made a decision to play the game somewhere else they had the information and knew what the storm was doing yesterday but they chose to wait and now its cost both teams a game.
Florida knows it has a high chance of losing.. they do not play Alabama nor Texas A&M like UT does.. instead it plays LSU and Arkansas this year… if they can avoid a loss to LSU then they only have to play Arkansas! If they have only one more conference loss and Tennessee loses to A&M and Bama then florida will have a better conference record!
Foley is a coward trying to work the system. Sankey has shown himself to be a weak stick. The SEC is in trouble.
This one is on the Gators. Bring on the asterisks.