LSU's athletic director Joe Alleva has shown a complete lack of competence and willingness to compromise with Florida officials in the rescheduling of their game postponed by Hurricane Matthew. Alleva demanded that his Tigers got to keep their home game on November 19 and was completely unwilling to do the right thing and allow the game to be played where it was supposed to in Gainesville.
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Here's how you know for sure that Alleva has no regard for other schools. He wrote this letter to LSU fans explaining that it was more important for the Tigers to get the economic boost from a home game than it was for Florida to get the boost even though they are the ones who got hit by a hurricane.
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Here's the letter in its entirety and you can be the judge for yourself:
Dear Tiger Fans,
There will be a lot of talk about how the LSU-Florida game came to be played in Tiger Stadium.
Hurricane Matthew created an unfortunate situation requiring the October 8 game to be postponed. Having lived through many hurricanes, we at LSU are relieved that the Gainesville area was spared the harshest parts of the storm. We wish those impacted along the Atlantic Coast by Hurricane Matthew a safe and rapid recovery from the storm's effects.
Football schedules are made years in advance and it is difficult to reschedule a postponed game. After extensive deliberation, the University of Florida agreed to play the 2016 game in Baton Rouge on November 19, while LSU agreed to play the 2017 contest in Gainesville.
We felt it was important to the local economy to have a game in Baton Rouge. Many of the Tiger faithful endured a 1,000-year flood, and every game is a much-needed opportunity for an economic boost to our region.
This decision does not come without implications to LSU Athletics. Next year, our team will need your support as they will play more games on the road than usual. This means our economy and the Athletic Department will miss out on expected revenue opportunities. This was all part of the give-and-take between the two universities.
With everything our community has endured over the past few months, it is critical that we play seven home games this season, and we're pleased that the Tigers will play host to an SEC matchup on November 19. That game will also mark the final home appearance for our senior players, and we will hold a special tribute to them prior to kickoff.
Speaking of the Tigers, how about their performance in Ed Orgeron's LSU head coaching debut against Missouri? Coach O and his staff had the Tigers prepared to perform at a premium level, and the 42-7 win featured 634 yards of total offense - the most-ever by LSU in an SEC game.
We'll look forward to seeing you this Saturday night in Tiger Stadium when Coach O - our very own "Bayou Bengal" - leads the Tigers against Southern Miss!
As always, we welcome your comments at [email protected]. Unfortunately we cannot answer every e-mail we receive, but please be assured they are all read.
Geaux Tigers!
Joe Alleva
Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics
Now does not seem like the appropriate time to be talking about missing games at home next year or your interim head coach who may or may not end up with the job at the end of the season. Clearly, Alleva doesn't quite get it and probably deserves to get a home game taken from his team.
[h/t Saturday Down South]
