While some may be frustrated over the cancellation of Saturday's Florida-LSU contest (namely Tennessee fans), the Tigers' athletic director Joe Alleva admitted the team did just about everything in its power to make the game happen, seemingly hinting at Florida not exerting quite the same effort.
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Alleva: "I want everyone to know, that LSU made every attempt to try to play this game."#LSU
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
#LSU offered to fly into Gainesville on Sunday AM and play there and fly out Sunday PM.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
#LSU offered to play Sat/Sunday/Monday either in Baton Rouge or Gainesville. #LSU had secured hotels in BR + NOLA. Even offered #LSU plane.
— . (@PromotesPrimesX) October 6, 2016
Florida's athletic director Jeremy Foley noted it would be "impossible" to put on the contest on such short notice, via SEC Country:
"... To try to put a road trip together of 150-plus people in a day and a half not knowing the conditions of the roads, not knowing the conditions of the airports, trying to get equipment out there, again, not in the best interest of safety, not in the best interest of people that would be involved in that trip."
Alleva: "You have to respect safety, Florida's concern about safety and travel. At end of the day, we're very disappointed." #LSU
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
Unfortunately for the Tigers and those involved, early projections had the game going on as planned until it fell apart on Thursday:
Alleva on UF steering the process: "I can tell you this. The first conversation with Jeremy was on Tuesday. He was confident he could play."
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
JA cont: Today it all fell apart. From the very beginning today it fell apart.
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) October 6, 2016
Florida reportedly sought a makeup date of November 19, and a buyout of non-conference games.
SEC will make final call on LSU-Gators makeup date. Gators want Nov. 19 (and to buy out non-conference games). LSU does not want that
— Mark Long (@APMarkLong) October 6, 2016
That wasn't a feasible solution, per reports:
It could mean a loss of more than $5 million for #LSU. https://t.co/tf83OQFQlT
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
It also would give #LSU three straight #SEC road games:
at Arkansas
at Florida
at Texas A&Min 12 days. https://t.co/x8julLpLYk
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 6, 2016
Alleva admitted Friday morning the game would not be made up, leaving plenty of questions on how the SEC East will shake out.
Tennessee would need to win at least one of its next two contests against Texas A&M or Alabama, or hope that Florida stumbles against one of its remaining SEC contests (Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt) in order to punch a ticket to Atlanta and the SEC title game.
