The Florida Gators will lose a home game in 2016. They’ll lose two home games worth of ticket sales as well and the true economic impact that it will have to the city of Gainesville is unknown.
At the end of the day, LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva crossed his arms, threw a tantrum like a child and refused to be amenable during negotiations with Florida and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. That was apparent when Sankey thanked Florida, not LSU, for making this happen and more so when Foley released a statement saying:
“We made this decision to play the game in Baton Rouge,” Foley said in a statement. “The conference office asked us to find a solution in working with LSU, yet LSU was never a true partner in our discussions. The Southeastern Conference offered some other solutions and the LSU administration made it clear that they were unwilling to consider other reasonable options.”
Florida’s outgoing AD reiterated that sentiment in a press conference Thursday night.
“It became abundantly clear this was going to be a difficult negotiation,” said Foley. “LSU had drawn a line in the sand and was refusing to consider any other options presented except those consistent with the line they had drawn.”
Florida was scheduled to have senior day on November 19 against Presbyterian. Last Thursday, shortly after the game was postponed, Florida reached out to Brian Reese to let him know that the November 19 date may be an option for Florida and LSU to make up the game.
“We made them aware early on that probably the only flexibility we were going to be able to have in this whole situation unless the league was able to move a lot of dominos around was Nov. 19,” Foley said. “You know, you have a game like that in Presbyterian, this was probably a big trip for them. This was probably their donor trip. This is a trip their team has probably looked forward to playing, and obviously that got taken away from them.”
The thought of not playing this game never crossed Foley’s mind. Alleva talked openly as if the thought of making the game up hadn’t crossed his. A SEC bylaw states that a team must play the full slate of eight conference games if it wants to play for a SEC Championship in Atlanta. Florida is currently second in the SEC East and has a realistic shot of winning its division. LSU fired its coach of ten years four weeks into the season and is third in the west with a 2-1 conference record. The Tigers still have to play undefeated Alabama and Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Arkansas. They never worried about not representing the West due to not playing eight conference games because their schedule will take care of that for them.
This gave Alleva leverage and he took advantage of that.
Fans, fueled by many in the media, drove a narrative all week that Florida was afraid to play LSU. That the Gators were beat up and wanted to avoid having to play a football game and only used the Hurricane as an excuse.
Those people look foolish as Florida heads to Baton Rouge in November.
“I think it’s evident that the University of Florida is not afraid to play anybody,” Foley said. “I think this decision is indicative of that as we’re going to Baton Rouge.”
The decision to move a the game leaves Florida with just six homes games in 2016. It’s the worst home schedule Florida has had in recent memory. It will probably be the first time the Swamp hasn’t hosted a single bowl-eligible visitor for an entire season. It does, however, give Florida an incredible home schedule in 2017. After kicking off the season at Dallas Cowboys Stadium against Michigan, Florida will host Northern Colorado, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, LSU, Texas A&M, UAB and Florida State. That will, hopefully, help the Gainesville economy that thrives off of football season.
“Things always have a way of working out. And so what may not be ideal in the moment for the Gators is going to come back to us in spades a year from now,” Foley said. “I’m saying that with the understanding that for certain people they’re affected differently.”
Alleva, who has openly called playing Florida “unfair” and has tried to do away with the contest almost got his wish.
The Florida Gators and LSU Tigers will continue their rivalry thanks to Jeremy Foley, who won’t even be Florida’s Athletic Director when the game is made up, just another accolade on to an already impressive sheet of accomplishments for the best athletic director in the country.