Steep price to pay for both Florida, LSU to move game to Baton Rouge
All you LSU fans who clamored that the Florida game should have been played in Baton Rouge, you’re getting your way, just a little later.
And you Florida fans who insisted LSU play Nov. 19, your wish has been granted too.
LSU and Florida agreed Thursday to play Nov. 19 at Tiger Stadium to make up for the game scheduled for Oct. 8 that was postponed due to the threat of Hurricane Matthew.
But what a cost to both teams to get this game played.
For Florida, the costs are to this season. Not only will the Gators lose a home game against LSU, but also the scheduled home game against Presbyterian set for Nov. 19. LSU will lose a home game that day as well, as the South Alabama game has to be punted, but with UF coming instead, the schedule keeps its total number of home games.
But the Tigers gain so much more. Hosting Florida gives LSU a fifth SEC home game this year against three road games. Florida will play just five home games, instead of the originally scheduled seven, and now only has two more home dates the rest of the year.
LSU will suffer next year with an imbalanced schedule that will include five SEC road games and just three home games. The Tigers must go to Florida in both 2017 and 2018.
So it’s not like either program makes out like bandits here. Both have a price to pay at different times.
How does it affect the teams in the short term?
Let’s look:
LSU
- With Florida coming to Baton Rouge, LSU plays three of its final five SEC games at home and four of its six games overall. That’s a much more manageable conference schedule than the one that would have had the Tigers finishing the season with three straight road games.
- However, the final stretch of games is still tough as LSU’s November is Alabama, at Arkansas, Florida and a short week at Texas A&M on Thanksgiving Thursday.
- LSU is able to have two byes, which will be helpful for a team that’s had a lot of injuries, especially on offense.
- LSU finishes with an 11-game schedule. While it’s still possible for the Tigers to win the Western Division at 9-2, could the Tigers lack of a 12th game cost them if they were to enter the College Football Playoff Conversation?
- There will be hell to pay next year for whoever the new coach is, whether it’s interim head coach Ed Orgeron or somebody else. The Tigers already had to go to Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State and Ole Miss and now get to add the Gators to a grueling road schedule. They also play BYU in Houston to start the season and play six home games. Could this have an influence on who might want the job?
Florida
- The home stretch gets much tougher for the Gators, who finish at LSU and Florida State. The Gators have a road game at Arkansas to look forward to as well.
- How costly is it for Florida and the city of Gainesville to lose not only the LSU game, but the Presbyterian game from the home schedule? One of LSU’s biggest objections was the loss of game-weekend revenue to a flood-ravaged city from losing the South Alabama game. How about losing two home games in one season? This is the kind of decision that could put some local businesses that rely on home game revenue for big windfalls out of business.
- Like LSU, Florida gets to have two byes. With injuries, especially to the defensive front and to quarterback Luke Del Rio, this could prove to be beneficial down the home stretch.
- Florida looks to be better next year and it has to love its chances with a home-friendly schedule in 2017. After opening against Michigan in Dallas, the Gators play five of the next six at home, including games against Tennessee, LSU and Texas A&M in the Swamp. The Gators also get Florida State in Gainesville to wrap up an eight-game home schedule. The road games? At Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina. That’s setting up to be a huge season for the Gators.
…and I bet Foley and Florida are STILL TOO STUPID to have learned their lesson.
And just what lesson would that be? Have you EVER lived through a hurricane, major or not? The predictions changed hourly on this storm, early on it was going to be well offshore and not a problem, later it was going for landfall in the center of the state as a category 5 storm. As it was only 2 things really saved the state, a big High pressure system came south faster than originally expected and the storm wobbled east about 50 miles.
Game should have been pushed to Sunday. Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation….
My understanding is that the city still couldn’t promise there would be police and EMTs available. I’d rather an AD err on the side of public safety than err on the side of playing a football game. It’s just the right thing to do. Heck, I wish the game had been played Sunday or Monday. We all knew the skies would be beautiful. What we didn’t know was what the ground would look like.
I am telling you: “Vol Train Conductor” is actually skankhunt42.
Thankful that Saturday will probably be the last we see of Vol fans on this site until next February when they start talking again about how this is their year and they’re “back”.
Not happening.
Why would we be gone? Even if we lose to Bama, we are still playing in Atlanta.
And Tennessee will still be a better team than Florida and I’m sure you aren’t going anywhere. So why should we?
I’m not sure anyone is really happy about this. Both teams lose home games this season, and UF actually two. Any spirit of cooperation was lost last week when Foley refused to work anything out. Now, it was Alleva’s turn to play hardball. Not good on anyone’s part
Yeah this was handled badly at both ends but not sure how it could have been any different given both teams wanted that home game revenue.
The game could and should have been played in Gainesville Sunday. Foley screwed both cities and schools by not playing.
“Both teams lose home games this season”
How do you figure that? LSU is playing seven home games like they were supposed to, right? In fact, one of those home games just got significantly upgraded.
am I the only person who thinks Florida got screwed big time on this deal? Because LSU didn’t want to give up a home game so florida has to give up 2 home games. That seems fair. Trust me I don’t like either one of these teams but if im a florida fan I have to be pissed. They will probably being playing for the east title for that game and instead of playing at home like it was supposed to be you have to go on the road to hostile environment.
I think both schools sacrificed a season to save another. In that regards, Florida may have done better. It’s still a young team and now it has a schedule next year where all of its toughest SEC games are in Gainesville (except Georgia, of course). LSU is trying to save this season, but with two losses already, is it even savable?