Over at And The Valley Shook, you’ll find a review of the SEC’s options to open up a playing date for the Florida-LSU game, which was postponed (should I put that in air quotes?) this past weekend. There’s one problem with all of them: none can be chosen without the help of outside parties.
October 29, for example.
The bye week before the Bama game hasn’t helped LSU at all. Florida basically had a bye this week and Georgia would end up getting their bye a week later. But this involves more than just LSU and Florida — Georgia would have to agree to the move as well. Plus, the Jacksonville Jaguars are at home on October 23, which would mean there’d be two games at EverBank Field in two days. People have also made reservations for hotels and all that for the weekend of 10/29 in Jacksonville. How that would work out if the game is moved up is anyone’s guess.
And again, Georgia has to be accommodating in helping one of their biggest rivals solve a problem that has nothing to do with the Bulldogs.
All I can say is that if Greg McGarity gets it in his head to do one last favor for his old boss before Jeremy Foley steps to the side by agreeing to move the Cocktail Party after the fan base has laid in its plans for the last week of the month and keeps his job, there is little point in having an emotional connection to the Georgia program. At least not for me.
And, yes, I have no idea how seriously this proposition is being pushed by Commissioner Sankey, if at all, but if nobody at Butts-Mehre will give it the preemptive public dismissal it deserves, I guess I’ll do my own preempting.
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UPDATE: Groo seconds the motion.
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UPDATE #2: Somebody sounds like he’s keeping his options open.
What happened to “no”?
Get The Picture 
McGoo should have a very simple response: NO F’ING WAY.
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Not just no …. HELL NO!
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This would be worthy of immediate firing….
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McGarity doesn’t ‘do’ anything, as far as I can tell, except what he thinks is expected of him to keep his job. Putting his incompetence aside, he’s a spineless weasel. Doing a favor for Foley would be a bold move, and he’s a man with no boldness. In this case that happens to play in our favor.
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every spineless weasel that I know is offended by being compared to McGarity.
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What about weasels with their spines intact?
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They’re all The Terminator compared to Mcgarity
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The answer to this question if ever posed is easy: No
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It sounds like Sankey is going to tug the presidents’ heart strings on this one. It may be Morehead’s call but I don’t see even Florida wanting to move the cocktail party, much less the City of J’ville. The whole notion is stupid. If it is going to move it has to be done today. Let Presbyterian play South Alabama on Nov. 19 and both schools get their money at Florida’s expense.
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I agree but S. Bama plays Ga. Southern that weekend, or so I thought…
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Ga. State… my bad
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Same difference.
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Couldn’t they just move the SEC Championship game a week? Obviously, it would all depend if LSU/UF would have any implications on who goes to the SECCG. If both are eliminated, just play it the same day as the SECCG.
I know the NCAA overlords would love have their bowl stuff locked in but this seems like a rare circumstance.
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GA HS playoffs are in the Dome that next week and also don’t want to move apparently.
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Awesome. Let’s give Amelia, Jekyll, and St. Simons a little less time to clean up after a hurricane.
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^^^this.
This whole notion is ridiculous. Florida put themselves in this mess, figure a way out of it… or forfeit.
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Right, the Hurricane was WAY farther north by Sunday. If USCe did Sunday, there is NO reason UF/LSU couldn’t have just done that.
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+100 Stinkin’ ass gators…..
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^^Why this wasn’t the immediate and most logical response to the idiotic notion of moving up our game is beyond me. The SEC screwed the pooch by not having them play Sunday at 2:30 like we did, so moving back the SEC title game would seem like the appropriate price of their incompetence.
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LSU offered to play Sunday. UF said no
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Anything short of “Fuck and No” is grounds for burning the whole mother down and rebuilding from the ground up. Helping Florida make up for their stupidity while putting ourselves at a competitive disadvantage? I hope I never live to see that level of failure from UGA.
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were you alive when we hired Goff?
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More importantly, were you alive when we weren’t firing Goff??
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Hate it break it to you, but we’re the first school in history to fire a coach who immediately landed at a historically superior program. Then we replaced with a good ol’ boy alum with zero head coaching experience. Unless we are crazy lucky, the match has been lit, and the program is on fire.
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Get the fuck out of here. The “coach lover” moniker is something that gets thrown around way too often amongs the folks who call themselves Georgia fans, but you are an absolute CLOWN.
You’ve been beating this same, tired drum since late November. Richt is the Miami coach, man. Move on.
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Miami is a “historically superior program”? So we only count from the 80s onward? Get real.
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Since Miami left the Big Easr, they’ve won exactly squat.
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If McGiggity agrees to move the WLOCP, he’d also better be ready to face a mob with torches, pitchforks, and siege engines outside the doors of Butts-Mehre rather shortly thereafter.
Also, I think there’s exactly zero chance that the city of Jacksonville, and/or the stadium authority agrees to this move, because of the loss of revenue to the city.
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Just curious…
What would you think if McGarity found a way to negotiate the WLOCP into an extra home game for Georgia? (To be clear, this would not be a home-home trade. This would be a one-time accommodation and a home game for Georgia in exchange for flexibility dates or whatever.)
Would that be an acceptable outcome?
Again, just curious what people would think about that.
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Not as a home-and-home. Move it to Athens for this year only and no return to Hogtown. Still doesn’t make up for lost deposits in Jax, though. I dont see moving the game happening. But I’ve been wrong before. Like that time with that girl when I thought sure she said…wait, never mind.
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I don’t see it happening either. I was just curious what the fan reaction would be to a one time — “sure, we don’t have to play in Jacksonville, we can play in Athens this year” position. Again, one time.
Please remember: I said explicitly “To be clear, this would not be a home-home trade.”
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Are you suggesting they break the contract with Jacksonville?
Yeah, that’s gonna work.
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Ok — so you’d prefer to dismiss the question with salty sarcasm?
But I thought you were a contracts lawyer. So you’re probably familiar with efficient breach, renegotiation, etc. So there’s no way a breach of contract or renegotiation can make sense when efficient and in the interest of both parties?
I didn’t realize I was posing such a dumb question worthy of dismissive sarcasm until I saw that high handed reply. Please forgive me, Professor Blutarsky.
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Why would McGarity do that when he could very easily just say “no”?
Add to all this the fact that if Georgia beats Florida, this is a non-issue and there’s no reason for the game to be rescheduled.
McGarity breaking the contract with Jacksonville would piss off his fanbase, piss off Jacksonville, and for what?
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It’s a moot point. McGarity said no.
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No way the city of Jacksonville let’s that happen
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Good point. No way Jacksonville would want that. But does the municipality even have a seat at the table in making the decision?
(I’m asking because I don’t know.)
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I’m not privy to what the break-contract clause is, but just to give you an idea of the numbers, the game generates around $35 million annually for the city of Jacksonville. Beyond that, each team gets about $2.4 million from the game annually, or about $5 million every two years. That’s about two million more than what they would get in a home and home over the same span.
So basically, you’d be looking at Jacksonville missing out on ~35 million, Florida missing out on revenue as they’d be playing in Athens, and Georgia likely missing out on revenue as well given the lucrative nature of the current contract. This, of course, doesn’t even consider what possible punitive measures are in place if the contract were broken. Add to that the fact that you’d be burning bridges with the city and jeopardizing the future of the WLOCP, and all that just to accommodate LSU and Florida for a game that may not even matter? It’s not gonna happen. The game will be played as scheduled.
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The contract is between the schools and the city, so, yes, Jacksonville has a seat at the table.
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and they need money given what just happened to their city.
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That also means we will have moved TWO games for conference rivals because of one storm. Seems a bit much for the team that has to travel in both scenarios re: impact on fan bases. Seems a bit much, indeed.
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I told the wife yesterday that I fully expect that they will move the cocktail party. It makes the most sense when you consider our AD.
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I don’t call him McGatory for nothing.
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Offer the Bulldog team free lodging in the Waldo prison and it’s a done deal.
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…and a box of condoms.
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McGarity can say yes to the 22nd….if the game is played in Athens GA.
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I’d be cool with this, but I’d need a refund on the price difference.
Might help make up for next year’s crummy home slate.
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I had the same thought. To me, this would be an interesting proposal. I asked about it above before I saw your comment here.
That would exhibit good faith flexibility to the SEC yet would also be an total positive scenario for Georgia. And if Florida says hell no, then they can eat mud.
We have leverage here.
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Lets hope Foley doesn’t call McGarity and disguise his voice claiming hes from the NCAA compliance committee and this move needs to happen.
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Mcgarity is a gator mole whose mission is to destroy UGA athletics from within. Makes a ton of sense if you think about it
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Yes because he would fire a coach that blew games in Jacksonville.
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If this happens, I will FedEx my shredded tickets to McG’s attention at BM.
Florida got themselves in this mess, they can pony up the buy out money and get themselves out.
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It is both sides here. LSU couldn’t expect to UF this week, the kids are dealing with family impacted by the storm.
LSU has been trying to get out cross division rivals (Florida) for years and nearly cost the SEC their oldest Rivalry in Auburn/UGA.
Moving the SECCG to the 10th is the only real answer but that impacts bowl selections and possibly the playoff selection. It would be interesting to see this works out compared to the tornado hitting the Dome during the basketball tournament. The NCAA was not willing to working the SEC at all.
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If our AD and the SEC office drag us into a scheduling issue that we have absolutely nothing to do with….then Tennessee should also give up its bye weekend on 10/22 and move its 10/29 visit to the Lamecocks a week forward as well. Yes, I know that Butch Jones is resting after a heroic 5-hour surgery the day before yesterday when the Texas A&M medical team performed removal of the long-missing Malzahn horseshoe from the inner recesses of his lower digestive tract. And Alabama’s medical team is due to pay a call this Saturday to perform replacement surgery (hopefully with a voodoo doll or a black cat). But if all this moving dates around is being done for Yew Tee’s benefit, then I don’t see why they can’t contribute a little bit themselves.
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I hope our administration states loudly and clearly no way. They can buy out the cupcakes.
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Let us see them ask to move Bama at LSU and UF at Ark up 1 week. They could play on Nov. 5th
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No to moving the UGA/FL date.
I think the answer is to play the week they both have non-SEC patsies on the schedule, even though the logistics wouldn’t be easy. And to entice them to get ‘er done, I suggest they both are given conference loss if they fail to play the game at all.
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Agreed, and interesting article covering some of the lost revenue SEC payout policies
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-florida-lsu-game-postponed-hurricane-matthew-20161006-story.html
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^^This right here. Buy out your cupcakes and play that Saturday. If either of you refuse then it’s a loss for both or makes both of you ineligible for the SECCG. This should not involve UGA at all, but I fear what will happen with McDoofus in charge.
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If it does happen hopefully it will set the fire needed to out him.
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I would also go so far to say the teams should be forced to vacate their next Division championship/SECCG visit. Let them figure it out.
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Pay the teams off, and let them play at South Alabama…problem solved.
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Morehead and McGarity pooped the bed this past week. Why not do it again?
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Did they? I’m curious — how was the Sunday rescheduling their fault?
Who actually held leverage in those negotiations? Who had the rights to make that decision?
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Because they weren’t proactive early in the week in letting South Carolina know that they wouldn’t accept a Sunday rescheduling. They should have done that instead of their usual passive, reactionary routine. Then you let South Carolina either move the game or cancel it. But it would be on them.
They also could have worked with the Georgia Dome and done a hell of sales job on South Carolina (and the general public) on why moving the game was the right move. The reasons were plenty – Atlanta was expected to/did have great weather on Saturday, plenty of hotel rooms, get folks out of South Carolina and away from the storm, free up hotel rooms in Columbia, keep ESPN happy still showing the game Saturday night, etc.
But instead they pooped the bed. They offered to move the game to Athens but that was it.
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Actually I think this is dumber than dirt. I can’t stand McGarity, but this one worked out right with the least harm done to all parties. Moving it to Athens or Atlanta would have been ok had we expected no play conditions on Sunday or even Monday. They did the RIGHT thing and frankly UGA and USC handled this much better than the ridiculous mess Florida, LSU and the SEC created with that other game. Chalk this one up as absolutely the right move. Now, I realize that even monkeys get it right once in a while….
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Thanks for totally ignoring the reasons I listed. Frankly, I think the notion that playing in Columbia on Sunday is better than playing in Atlanta on Saturday is dumber than dirt. But to each his own.
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Well the fact is South Carolina was not going to play the game anywhere other than Columbia so the dome or Athens is really a moot point.
Now if they couldn’t play in Columbia Sunday that might have made them change their tune. Even as dumb as McDumbo is, surely not even he would agree to play on Monday given the fact they have another game the following Saturday…. Would he ?? ok, he might just be dumb enough to do it….
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I thought the Sunday thing was fine….better than not playing it. Better than Monday.
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Agreed and playing during a driving rain would have given the better defensive team the advantage.
I actually enjoyed seeing a Red and Black Georgia base team sweep their Carolina rivals without taking their taxpayers on an unnecessary ride for millions of dollars.
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We won, kept our players healthy on the dry field, and did not disrupt our schedule down the road.
I say they handled it well.
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They didn’t know we would win when they rescheduled the game. And the game wasn’t going to be played in Columbia on Saturday regardless, so the wet field worry was a moot point.
The possibility of ending up with a disrupted schedule down the road was certainly on the table though, so I see your point there. However, I still think they pooped the bed by not pursuing the Atlanta option more aggressively and by not standing up to South Carolina preferring the Sunday option from the get go. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that South Carolina is off this coming weekend and was perfectly content to put the decision off for as long as they could…to the point Thursday night where the only alternative was pushing the game back a day.
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Would you rather be in the UF/LSU boat right now? UGA got the better outcome here by far. Now if we agree to move the Cocktail Party, I take back what I just said.
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Why is the UF/LSU situation the only alternative? Why can’t the UGA administration ever stand up for themselves? Why do they always have to have a passive response to everything?
Do you like having a short week this week? Granted, we’re only playing Vandy but still. I also didn’t care for the team staying in some federal training facility Saturday night.
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I have no idea if Atlanta was a realistic alternative, and neither do you. I know that UF and LSU “stood up for themselves” and ended up with a horrible outcome. No, the shortened week is not ideal, but it was less than a 24 hour delay. And most of all, let’s not forget why this situation happened. I for one am happy that our administration was willing to be reasonable under the circumstances and not try to leverage a looming disaster to its sole benefit.
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From what I hear, Saturday at the dome was a no-go. Georgia State played there Saturday afternoon and was not willing to move their game to an earlier time (which they had the right to do). GSU playing at their scheduled time would not leave enough time to “turn the dome around” for a Georgia game.
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So you’re going entirely by a hypothetical that might not have been possible in the first place to oppose a mostly logical decision that turned out to be A-OK. All of this just to support your bitching for bitching’s sake argument. Got it.
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Can I have your tickets? Hadn’t planned on going but now there are some great deals on St. Simons for that earlier weekend! 😉
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I just got my student ticket last week. If they move the game I will personally show up to vandalize B-M. Last week was bad enough but this would be grounds for razing B-M to the ground.
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Fire all involved at B-M then.
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McGarity just said on Finebum that moving Florida game was impractical.
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I guess LSU didn’t complain last year when they got an extra home game from the flood in South Carolina. They are net even if they cancel their cupcake.
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Sankey made the call to cancel, another article pointing out timelines and logistics. I’d love to blame Florida but at the moment LSU is the one keeping the game from happening:
https://www.seccountry.com/florida/separating-fact-from-fiction-as-we-point-fingers-for-florida-lsu-postponement
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The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.
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Without a doubt, I want to know why the Sun/Monday option were eliminated so soon.
LSU is keeping the Nov. 19th option from happening.
Ultimately Sankey has the authority to make the decisions but leadership seems to be on the McGarity level of competence.
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I said it before and I’ll say it again, “Fire ADGM”.
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Sankey wouldn’t answer any questions from Danielsen during A&M TN. Should have been on stage last night.
If we move to accomodate the booger eating gators I am done……………
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I’m with you Athens Dog..
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If Greg McGarity likes his job, then he will shut this down HARD. Tell Greg Sankey that the Georgia Bulldogs will be walking onto the field at Everbank Stadium on Saturday, October 29th and if the Florida Gators aren’t there because they’re in Gainesville playing LSU then they can forfeit our game. We’ll have G-Day part two for a stadium half-filled with Bulldog fans.
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People, people, people. There is a simple solution for all of this:
Florida forfeits. Go cure cancer.
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LSU should forfeit, LSU has not offered a workable solution.
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..and Florida has
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Sure they did – they offered to play Florida on Sunday. Not only that, they offered to fly in and out same day so as to not take up hotel rooms.
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Oops, by “sure they have” the “they” is LSU, NOT FU.
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McGarity to Foley: Pay for our IPF and we might listen.
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Simple(st) Answer: Have the ADs from LSU and Florida meet at the conference office and flip a coin. Since neither side is willing to work out an agreement that is mutually beneficial and doesn’t interfere with the rest of the conference, then leave it up to chance. Done and done.
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This is a Florida/SEC office problem, UGA should not be impacted and the WLOCP should remain as scheduled. Foley didn’t move off his hardass position, and Sankey didn’t overrule him. Let them find another solution, or just leave it as is. Cancelling the Oct 29 date for UGA/FU is more than a one night stay at a Holiday Inn Express, many fans have full weeks, or several nights at Sea Island, for that week, including vacation schedules. McDummy should stand firm, as should Jacksonville, and all businesses with plans already set.
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Nice they left off the end of his sentence, which finished with and I do not think it is an option whatsoever.
Maybe he cannot say no as it is not his call to make.
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the WLOCP ain’t moving anything. I would bet a paycheck that there are a ton of FU fans that have all kinds of reservations too. Foley knows that and he is getting an earful from his drop-out…errr….alumni too.
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Sure, we’ll play them a week earlier. In Athens.
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Just interested, have any of you on here who usually stay in the Golden Isles/Amelia/Jax area for Ga-Fla been contacted by your lodging to say we won’t be ready for your stay because of the storm?
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Well this ain’t good news…..
“Hogans Creek Biodiversity Festival has been rescheduled for Saturday, Dec. 10.” Domino’s starting to fall.
😉
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Have not heard a word from them , so thinking everything is go.
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We have not heard anything.
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Move the SECC game back a week. Play Fla-LSU on Dec 3
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Can’t do it. The playoff committee will make the selections on December 4 whether we have a champion or not. Also, the Georgia high school state championship games are already scheduled in the Dome that weekend.
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Y’all know Tech was away last Saturday. They didn’t have to use the dome to play in ATL.
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Florida State was away as well….
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