It does not appear that LSU and Florida will be playing a regular season game in 2016.
On Thursday it was announced that the game — which was scheduled for a noon kickoff in Gainesville this Saturday — was postponed and that there was no concrete plan for a makeup. Here was the official statement from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey:
“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 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.”
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva joined ESPN 104.5 Baton Rouge on Friday morning to discuss the matter, and he was pessimistic about the chances of getting this thing done:
Alleva on @1045espn: "The game is not going to happen."
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) October 7, 2016
Alleva: "We would have done anything to get the game in. Anything."
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) October 7, 2016
#LSU AD Joe Alleva is on @1045espn now, confirming what he said on Thursday. The game against #UF will not be made up this season.
— Shea Dixon (@Sheadixon) October 7, 2016
If the two parties cannot come to an agreement (and at this point, that’s how it looks), there’s a big discussion looming when it comes to the SEC tiebreakers in both the East and West divisions:
#LSU AD Joe Alleva said he will discuss the tiebreaker with the #SEC office. The big debate becomes LSU at 6-1 vs. a 7-1 team LSU beat.
— Shea Dixon (@Sheadixon) October 7, 2016
Here was Alleva’s comments during yesterday’s press conference, where he already began to address the issue as a “game cancellation”:
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
