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Breaking Down Florida's Pitiful Handling Of LSU Week
Oct 1, 2016; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers interim head coach Ed Orgeron during the fourth quarter of a game against the Missouri Tigers at Tiger Stadium. LSU defeated Missouri 42-7. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Saturday’s LSU at Florida game has been canceled, and the conference will attempt to reschedule it for later in the year. But the chances of that happening are very slim, and the two teams will likely not meet at any point this season. That means the Tigers will have back-to-back seasons only playing 11 games.
With a massive hurricane heading for the state, there are bigger things to worry about than football for those in the state of Florida. But for those of us in Louisiana, LSU gameday is what we have looked forward to all week, and this entire process has been very frustrating.
Many in the national media will praise Florida and the SEC for choosing safety over football, but it’s the fault of those two parties that we are in this mess to begin with. If all people involved had done their job, we’d still be playing football this Saturday.
Obviously, we don’t have all the details, but from how I see, the majority of the blame for this entire thing lies with Florida. Error after error and constant selfish decisions have cost the teams a chance to play, and frankly the entire mess is just pathetic.
After reading reports and seeing what others are saying, I have come down to three things that led to the cancellation of this game.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
1. No Plan In Place Beforehand
This one is just baffling to me. How can anyone in their right mind see that a massive hurricane is potentially heading for the coast and not get an alternate plan ready in the event that it hits? Much like people plan and prepare for a storm to hit, a university expecting tens of thousands of people in town for a football game should have some kind of plan ready with a CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE on the way.
But, instead of being prepared, the Gators sat back and did nothing. The school kept giving us the “everything is fine” message and didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
If Florida would have worked with the LSU Tigers and the SEC, we could have had a plan in place for an event like this and maybe played a football game this weekend.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
2. Declaring That The Game WILL Be Played In Gainesville
After days of analysts, reporters, and fans wondering why in the world Florida wasn’t doing anything regarding the storm, the school finally decided to say something about it on Wednesday.
After several delays, it was finally announced late in the afternoon that the game would undoubtedly be played at the University of Florida as scheduled. The school was adamant that there would be no moving the game, and that the weather would not be a problem.
While the Gators lived off in their own fantasy world, the rest of us saw it for the boneheaded statement that it was. They really expected to play a game through a CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE???If that’s what they really saw happening, and it wasn’t just delusion, the people making that call were potentially putting upwards of 100 thousand people in danger.
Had Florida looked at the actual reality of the situation and helped work on a solution, rather than declare the game was not moving, this likely would not be anywhere near the mess it is now.
Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
3. A Complete Unwillingness To Compromise
Obviously, no team wants to give up its homefield advantage and the money that comes with it, but sometimes you have to work with others and make sacrifices, and Florida refused to do that throughout this process.
I can completely understand the Gators not wanting to give up their home game and play in Baton Rouge, but a neutral-site game was a very real option. From what I can tell, Florida was not hearing any of it, and would not let go of their “we play here or we play nowhere” approach.
Had Florida been willing to work with LSU and the conference on this one, the two teams could have worked out a neutral place to play the game, one that would be as close to the the university as possible. I’m sure they could have worked out some kind of deal to even out the money, and we’d be playing football this Saturday.
But as they were throughout this whole process, Florida was too selfish to work with the other sides. So, when you’re sitting on your couch at 11 am this Saturday without LSU football, you have the Florida Gators to blame.
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