On Saturday October 8th, Louisiana State University was scheduled to visit the University of Florida for what would have been a pivotal football game in the SEC. However, due to Hurricane Matthew, the game was canceled and after a long process, rescheduled for November 19th.
The rescheduling of the big SEC matchup between the Tigers and Gators took a while and was extremely complicated, as both schools had to cancel previously scheduled games against non-conference opponents. Due to the entire situation being complicated and poorly organized, LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva called the situation “a joke” in emails that have been obtained by ESPN.
In those emails, Alleva also insinuated that people in Florida’s athletic department possibly didn’t want to play LSU at all after the game was postponed. At the time, LSU was 3-2 while Florida was 4-1.
The process of rescheduling the game began before the original game’s October 8th date as the forecasts for Hurricane Matthew projected bad weather for October 8th a week before. During the week leading up to the game, Alleva and company began to get very frustrated with Florida’s inability to play the game the same weekend. Another major SEC battle in Georgia vs. South Carolina was simply moved from Saturday, October 8th to Sunday, October 9th.
That’s where the joke line came into play. During that week, Alleva emailed board of supervisors athletic committee chairman Blake Chatelain “This is a joke.” Chatelain’s response, according to ESPN, was he asked Alleva if he thought Florida even wanted to play the game as much as LSU did.
“Would they not ?” Chatelain asked in the email.
“No way if they lost they would lose the east. Their schedule [is] easier than Tennessee[‘s] if they wanted to play we would be playing here or there,” Alleva responded.
Just like Alleva did, LSU team spokesman Michael Bonnette called the situation was “a joke.”
Despite being 4-1 at the time with their only loss coming against Tennessee, Florida was injured and about to play Texas A&M and Alabama shortly after the originally scheduled LSU game. Quarterback Luke Del Rio was dealing with a sprained knee and backup Austin Appleby was at QB when the Gators lost to the Volunteers.
Those were just a couple reasons why people speculated Florida was glad to have the game canceled.
“It shocks me that someone could actually think that way, especially knowing us,” Gators’ Head Coach Jim McElwain said during his Monday press conference.
“[There were] 19 deaths [in the United States], 2.5 million people without power. Families in dire needs. Obviously, they don’t know me, they don’t know the Florida Gators Gators. They don’t know our players… Dodging the game? Wow.”
Eventually a resolution was reached, with the two teams agreeing to play on November 19th in Baton Rouge instead of Gainesville. Additionally, the two schools bought out their non-conference games and LSU agreed to play AT Florida in both 2017 and 2018.
Part of the reason why a resolution was reached was due to the SEC Championship game. SEC rules state that for a team to play in the title game, it must play eight scheduled league games. Without this game, both LSU and Florida will have only played seven SEC games. This is what got Florida to agree to the change, but Athletic Director Jeremy Foley wasn’t too happy about it and wasn’t happy with LSU officials.
“It was obvious that they were committed to that position and that it was going to be difficult to change that position, and therefore that we felt the only way to escape an even more difficult situation was to make the decision that we did,” Foley said. “I think it would have been a huge mistake in my opinion, my staff’s position and opinion, [Florida president] Dr. [Kent] Fuchs’ position, for the University of Florida to draw a line in the sand, and then what would happen? And nothing good would have come out of that. At the end of the day, it’s time to step up and do what you think is right and go play a football game.”
The big matchup between the Gators and Tigers will take place on Saturday November 19th in Baton Rouge. A kickoff has not been announced, but the SEC already said it won’t be later than 3:30 pm ET.
[ESPN]
