With regard to the Florida-LSU re-scheduling, Greg Sankey’s problem is that he can take the reservation, he just doesn’t know how to hold the reservation.
Meanwhile, Greg Sankey’s tenure as SEC commissioner is threatening to go up in smoke like a Samsung Galaxy Note 7. First, he lets himself have terms dictated to him by Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. Now, he has an open rebellion on his hands with LSU and Alleva, an uprising that by SEC bylaws he is powerless to suppress.
According to SEC rules, the commissioner can cancel or postpone a game. But once it is postponed, he needs the cooperation of both schools to get it played.
Oops. Awk-ward.
As we’ve seen, Georgia has put its foot down about moving the Cocktail Party. And if repetition is any indication, it seems that Joe Alleva won’t be moved on the second fallback date.
“What I said the other day about this game being very difficult to reschedule is still true,” Alleva said Monday ahead of interim coach Ed Orgeron’s weekly press luncheon. “I think it’s very difficult. One thing that we’re going to hold very firm on is that we have a home game Nov. 19 and we’re going to have a home game on Nov. 19. We are going to have a home game on Nov. 19. We’re not going to change that situation.”
All that would seem to indicate Sankey has two options left: convince Florida to play in Baton Rouge on November 19th, or move the SECCG a week later to let the two teams play on the first Saturday in December. I strongly doubt Foley will agree to the former, and as far as the latter goes, that would mean postponing the CFP and bowl announcements and rearranging the Georgia state high school football finals set for Dec. 9-10 at the Georgia Dome. Does anyone see Jim Delany throwing Greg Sankey a bone here?
Which brings me back to what I believe Sankey’s Plan A is right now, namely, wishing for Florida to lose another conference game and hope like hell Tennessee stops the bleeding for good after playing Alabama this week. If neither happens before November 19, I’d hate to be something that has to pass through the commissioner’s sphincter, because that sucker is gonna be tighter than a gnat’s arse.
Get The Picture 
It would be nice playing UF with the league office telling the game officials, “We sure hope Georgia wins.” Of course, we wouldn’t know how to react.
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But having the refs on our side would be nice, just sayin’.
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My question is: Would the refs know how to react?
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SEC refs do as they are told. Period.
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Sandbagging (small pun intended) notwithstanding, did the rules permit Jeremy Foley to postpone the game?
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LSU only has one conference loss too. Foley better make travel plans for the 19th.
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Yeah, but they still have to play TA&M, Bama, Arkansas and Ole Miss plus 3 of those 4 games are on the road. That’s likely 2-3 losses not even counting a potential Florida game on the road.
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No – they get Bama and Ole Miss in Death Valley.
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Who knows, there is a reason they play the games….other than one game that is.
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Amazing how a conference can have so much money and so much incompetence. Playing “kick the can” with a hurricane = lots of bad decisions. Even on Friday there was a good chance our Sunday game wasn’t going to happen.
Now they are playing kick the can again.
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They all have great potential as bureaucrats.
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This is what I’ve been screaming for years regarding the incompetent referees. The SEC pulls in $500 million per year and hires moonlighting elderly insurance salesmen to insure the quality of its product. Asinine.
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An elderly insurance salesman got Harbaugh that sweet life insurance plan. 😉
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Gators forfeit. End of story. NC State and UNC played through the storm. UF has no excuses. Foley knows he overreacted.
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Dude, the entire east coast of Florida evacuated. Major safety concerns. What are you smoking.
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Yeah, what happened in NC isn’t what happened in FL. A category 4 Hurricane hit FL. It was a 1 and downgraded even further by the time it hit NC. I get them not playing the game in Gainesville…even on Sunday. The issue is that they didn’t make it happen in Baton Rouge or elsewhere.
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They didn’t have time to make it happen in Baton Rouge. A day and a half out the Baton Rouge idea was floated, SEC teams travel with a semi trailer load of equipment which was not packed at the time the idea was suggested. It was not logistically possible for UF to travel to Baton Rouge on such short notice especially with possible Hurricane conditions in the area
LSU and SC both had a week to move the game.
LSU has refused to cancel their cupcake on the 19th stating it isn’t about money, which the SEC has lost revenue policies in place, but that Baton Rouge deserves a home, all the while neglecting to mention they gained a home game with SC. Yes they lost one home game moving a game to Arizona due to Katrina but they also gained a Saints game due to Katrina.
LSU has been trying to get out of playing Florida for years and nearly cost the SEC Bama/UT, and Auburn/UGA. LSU has suggested ideas which they knew were valid options to deflect blame in canceling the game
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*LSU and SC both had a week when moving their games to Arizona and Baton Rouge respectively
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Sankey has the authority to cancel a game but not the authority to schedule a game? Simple fix is Sankey pulls Alleva to the side and says “You know that bye week you’ve enjoyed before Bama? You know the schedule isn’t set in the future. How does the 19th look?”
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Not sure what you have against LSU, but it seems much more likely that Foley and the Gators are trying to pull a fast one. LSU shouldn’t have to give up a home game because UF is trying to avoid a game against a tough opponent.
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Both LSU and FU are trying to avoid a tough opponent but Foley is the biggest ass in this.
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I enjoy a nice cigar on occasion. My point was that Foley didn’t take advantage of another venue. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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You are correct. The game should have already been played in Gainesville no later than Sunday or yesterday unless all the airports within 100 miles of Gainesville were still closed which they were not. No legitimate excuses.
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You apparently no nothing about hurricanes. Glad you are not in charge.
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Was there major damage to Florida field or Gainesville? NO What was the weather like in Gainesville Sunday and Monday? NICE The folks in Columbia made the folks in Gainesville look like wimps. I suppose the folks in South Carolina are a little tougher minded, not that it caused ANY major problems to play Sunday in Columbia.
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It was about the state and the resources and the unknowns of landfall. And it was a bad decision to play on sunday instead of going to the Dome.
You can’t look back at the weather and go “it was ok!” With a class 4 hurricane looking to make a major landful, safety first.
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And yet, Miami and FAU still played home games this weekend. What made their situation different from UF’s?
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“…played through the storm” implies they should have done the same. You didnt make the point about moving venues at all.
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I will forgive you for assuming that I know nothing about hurricanes and hope that you forgive me for assuming that you had heard the possibilities that the game could have been played in Tampa or Atlanta. My intent was not to offend.
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Florida did not have time to move the game anywhere.
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I believe that the Miami FSU game was considering a move to Raymond James Stadium if the Hurricane had made it impossible to play in Miami.
If that is true, it would have made it difficult to move he UF/LSU game there unless they played on Sunday. The Bucs played in Charlotte Monday night right?
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Miami was further south giving another day to make decisions.
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Fact: LSU offered to host the Gators, but they could not make the trip with such short notice and a hurricane potentially affecting their travel. Last year, South Carolina began planning Sunday to play the upcoming Saturday in Baton Rouge instead of Columbia, S.C. So that comparison is apples to oranges.
Others have pointed to Florida’s soccer and volleyball teams making road trips Sunday. The traveling party for football is three times the size of those two teams combined and requires security personnel and police escorts.
“To try to put a road trip together of 150-plus people in a day and half,” Foley said, “not knowing the condition of the roads, not knowing the conditions of the airports, trying to get equipment out there, that’s not in the best interest of safety, not in the best interest of people that would be involved in that trip.
“You aren’t going to put your team on the road and still have the same issue about traveling equipment trucks through this kind of weather. Traveling a team without any security because security forces are being deployed where they should be deployed. Would there be gas for the buses? Could you get buses? There’s so many unknowns.”
Alleva understood Foley’s concerns.
“Traveling, there’s a lot of safety issues,” Alleva said when asked if Florida was stubborn for not coming to Baton Rouge. “There were no police. I don’t know if you all listened to Jeremy’s press conference, but I’m sympathetic to what he said. I understand what he said.”
https://www.seccountry.com/florida/separating-fact-from-fiction-as-we-point-fingers-for-florida-lsu-postponement
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Dude, that link is nonsense written by a Florida fan.
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Otto is Foley’s e-handle.
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Hardly but it is amazing how many are naive into how much effort goes into a P5 football program traveling.
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They didn’t have time only due to their incompetence. Nothing more….There are a number of places they could have played it if not Gainesville. Hell 2 of them were less than 2 hours away – Tampa and Tallahassee (FSU played at Miami).
And don’t give me that “all the public safety people were on the coast” crap. South Carolina pulled it off with much fewer public safety personnel for the state.
And before you say I don’t know anything about hurricanes – I lived in Florida and went through plenty of them. Have you ?
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But that wasnt what you said. Move the game, fine, play it in Gainesville based on the early week, info.
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No they didn’t, Chuck. Who’s overreacting?
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I am in Florida, in hospitals, with lots and lots of reporting. The people from the east coast had to go somewhere. Hotels and recovery centers all across the western part of the state filled up. Highways in areas were a mess. Some areas lost power on the east or were shut down. Also, Hurricanes throw off thunderstorms, flooding, tornadoes, downed lines, tress, and make emergency response difficult enough as it is. The game should not have been played in Gainesville given how things looked on Wed. Just because, and thankfully, the storm wasnt “as bad” doesnt mean preparing for the storm appropriately was a bad thing.
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You asserted the entire east coast of Florida evacuated. I live on the east coast of Florida. I was here during the storm, and only certain coastal areas evacuated. A small minority to be sure. Your’e full of bullshit.
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Ok, you are one those assholes that takes things extremely literally. Obviously some people stayed, a whole f’n lot evacuated. Spike it in your ass.
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Thank you for proving my point. You got called on all your bullshit, now your butthurt about it. You are the know it all that said everybody evacuated to make your point, such as it is. Not me. Dumb ass.
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Get the players, support staff, coaches and necessary officiating staff to a location of safety and let who ever else shows up at kick off time in…..if not both teams forfeit the game. gator hator for life and scared of cocktailing cajuns after 4ish in the afternoon…… GO DAWGS!
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I drove right by the exit to the stadium Saturday on the way to Orlando, it was just a pretty day all the way down.
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But they couldnt know that on Mon-Wed. The storm just didnt turn in hard at speed.
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The Commish is going to have to turn on Foley and leak that he is the bad guy in all of this. Time for Mr Conventional Wisdom to earn his keep.
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Maybe get Foley and Finebaum on the SEC Nation bus talking about furniture shopping and tic tacs.
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Sankey = Obama
Foley > Trump
Aleva < Clinton*
*Clinton, Bill
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Alex, I’ll take “Sketchy Political Analogies” for $200.
I have no idea what your point is here.
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pfft, that’s exactly how THEY want the sheeple to see things.
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That’s because you don’t listen to Alex Jones. If you did, you’d understand it.
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Does that mean Sankey, Alleva and Foley are demons smelling of sulfur? That would explain a lot.
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+1. Not to mention that Jim Delany wants to take the guns.
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When Alex says he gets that info from high up sources does he mean God?
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He means Jethro Bodine…he’s “highest” in his class
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Can Kirby sign John Constantine to a scholly?
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Thank’s for the civility of your response, Senator. I have no explanation, really.
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Lets just do our part and go down and beat Florida and hope that UT drops 2 more games.
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Let’s not be generous, they had a hard week…I say we hope Flarduh goes win-less.
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As it turned out, the weather in Gainesville was fine. Security and medical staffing were available. The infrastructure in central Florida wasn’t affected. They easily could have proceeded with plans to play the game Saturday with the understanding that events on Friday and Saturday morning would ultimately determine whether those plans would go through or not. My understanding was that LSU was more than willing to put their players and equipment in motion and stay somewhere safe Friday evening in order to make the game on Saturday.
“Postponing” on Thursday was based a boatload of “ifs”. There was always the 50% probability the storm would veer eastward, which it did.
Sankey got flat out played by Foley. I doubt Foley does this if he has to worry about a working relationship with Sankey down the road – but he doesn’t.
Nothing Sankey can do at this point. Heckuva job, Greggie.
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Word is that Huntley Johnson had evacuated Gainesville.
And THAT’s a risk Jeremy Foley can’t hazard.
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Haha. This explains everything. Well done, NM.
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Well played
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I am totally on the UT losing 3 bandwagon at this point.
their injuries are mounting and the TO seem to be evening out.
They also just dismissed that DT who got injured against TAMU.
But I think that leaves Mizzou as the best hope. which is tough.
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UF’s problem.
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Oh crap. I know what that means.
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I haven’t seen this included in all of the doomsday scenarios for the CFP, but let’s just have some fun here. The UF and LSU stalemate continues and the game is not rescheduled, because at this point it forces to many other things to be moved (as mentioned above).
UF runs the table on the rest of the SEC schedule and loses to FSU in the season finale. Final record 9-2 (6-1) and wins the East over the 10-2 Volunteers (6-2). UT’s other loss is to Bama.
Bama which looks like a pretty convincing playoff team wins a hard fought game against UT, looks spent against A&M and loses close. Then they lose the game in Death Valley. They finish 10-2 (6-2).
A&M which looks home free after the Bama win screws up and can’t outscore Ole Miss. It leaves a winner take all scenario on Thanksgiving night. LSU wins. A&M finishes 10-2 (6-2). LSU wins the West with a 9-2 record (6-1.)
The unplayed game makes the difference in both divisions and UF plays LSU in Atlanta in December for the conference championship. UT screams all of championship that if UF loses, the Volunteers should get to play LSU the next week for conference championship. Bama/A&M scream all week that if LSU loses then then tiebreakers should be used and one of them gets to play UF the following week for the conference championship.
As far as the CFP is concerned though, it is revenge time. Baylor ends up the Big 12 Champion, finishing with a single loss. Dan Beebe laughs that about the SEC not having a 13th data point but cries foul when scandal ridden team that wins his conference is left out of the CFP. Washington runs the table to win the Pac-12 with an undefeated record.
Clemson loses to FSU but still plays in the ACC Championship. They play the Hurricanes who win out in ACC play but lose on the road in South Bend to ND since Brian Kelly was coaching for his job. CMR beats Clemson in the ACC game. Both team finish with 11-2 records.
Meanwhile in the Big Ten, Nebraska loses on the road to Ohio State but wins everything else to get to the conference championship. The Buckeyes outduel Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend in a game that finishes 28-28 after regulation but 74-72 after 7 overtimes. Nebraska wins the rematch with Ohio State.
The Big Ten has three teams with 1 single loss and Jim Delaney grins like a Chesire Cat when the CFP puts the three Big Ten teams in against Washington locking out the ACC, the Big 12, and the SEC as none of them have any teams with less than 2 losses.
The populations of the South go crazy. The ACC, the SEC, and the Big 12 decide to invoke a football exit from the NCAA – #Fexit. ACC tells all of the schools North of the Mason Dixon line they are out. The remaining 11 join up with 14 SEC schools and 9 schools from the Big 12. (Texas just secedes from all schools and plays games against random independents and semi-pro teams on their Longhorn network.)
College sports looks really different in 2017/18 all because of Hurricane Matthew and two adults unable to make a reasonable decision when the time was right.
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That is creative. I like it
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What about Boise State?
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The game won’t be rescheduled and UGA will go 10-2, and UT will drop 2 more, UGA will be held out of the SECCG due to the Lizards 9-2.
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In that scenario, UGA would have the head to head over UF.
UT getting a 3rd lose is tough, given their usual November fluffer session.
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Correct. 9-2 means nothing. The number would be 5-2 for the lizards, and we’d be 6-2 with head to head. Dawgs win. We just need to get UT to 5-3.
I am still supremely disappointed in the end of the UT game. BUT…all we can do is control what’s in front of it. I hate counting on other teams, but it is what it is. We went to Jax 6-2 in 2007 and went on an historic run. UT almost lost the East that year, painfully winning the last 3 conference games vs. South Carolina, VU and UK. Roll Tide on Saturday and then we’ve got 4 shots at an upset.
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I knew senators supporters would be the quickest method to understand this welcome scenario, thanks!
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UT holds tie breakers over UGA and UF. The more likely scary scenario is Orgeron works some magic at LSU and wins out beating Bama. A&M beats Bama and A&M gets upset by 2 mid pack West teams
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Well, if LSU does that and UT loses to Bama, then Florida could win out and could play the Bengalis in the Dome. They’d get to play after all. Wouldn’t that be special?
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Saban picks up and throws coke bottle, stomps out of room yelling “Have a great day!!”
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@gatriguy, If UF is not playing 8 conference games, then a tie in win percentage isn’t possible, thus tiebreakers don’t apply. I think it’s entirely feasible that UT loses to Bama and Mizzou. UGA beats UF, and UF goes to the SEC Championship by refusing to play LSU.
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If UGA and UF each finish with 2 losses, we move ahead of them because of winning %.
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Correct UJ. FU at 5-2 in the SEC would be .714. UGA at 6-2 would be .750. The most likely scenario is that UT loses to Bama but wins the rest making UT 6-2 in the SEC with the tiebreak over Georgia thereby winning the SEC East even if Georgia wins out. All because of that @*%# celebration penalty.
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No, you’re missing the point. In the scenario you just laid out, no matter what happens in that LSU/UF game, Florida loses a tiebreaker to UGA. It might disincentivize them even further from playing the game, but they wouldn’t get in. Basically you need to focus on the number of losses and who they are to rather than the number of wins.
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I like Bloody Mary’s too.
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Somebody screwed the pooch on this one.
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I don’t know much about hurricanes or disaster relief but the decision was short-sighted on everyone’s part.
This is a conference that was able to move an entire college basketball tournament from a 70,000 seat venue to venue with less than 10,000 over the course of 12 hours after a tornado. They could have cancelled the tournament and given the regular season champion the automatic bid.
They made a team play two games in one day. The turned fans and ticket holders from the original venue away and had to refund a bunch of money. One game was played in front of what amounted to family and friends.
Yet they played the tourney all the way to completion – why? Because they believed in the integrity of competition. That canceling the games would have denied opportunity for all of the players in the conference the chance to make the NCAA or perhaps win a conference championship.
Most of us have seen the documentary and a few of us were really happy they played the tournament.
This is bad leadership at the conference level. This bad leadership at Florida and LSU. So Florida didn’t want to lose the home game revenue and they stuck their foot in the sand about moving to a new location.
If they had legitimate concerns that if the region took a direct hurricane hit, and playing on Sunday may not have happened either, why did the conference think that moving the UGA/SC game back a day works in SC but not FL? Gainesville is 95 miles from the coast. Columbia is about 105 miles. If either region took a direct hit then the Sunday game was pointless.
Jeremy Foley and Joe Alleva both have realized that it is advantageous for their teams to avoid this game at all costs. One of them will lose if they play and it will knock them out of the championship game.
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LSU is probably losing between 2 and 4 more games. UF is probably the 4th best team they had remaining on their schedule behind Ol Miss, Bama and A&M. Could they win them all? Sure. And maybe that is what Alleva is thinking – but lets be honest – the team has under-performed to the point that they fired a coach with a national title to his name.
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That is true but with each team having a single loss, the best course for each of them is to not replay and hope they run the table. It all becomes a moot point if they get to 2 losses though.
My point about the tornado tournament vs this situation is that those in charge had less time to handle an actual disaster situation that damaged the venue and they still found a way to get it done and the conference members made concessions to protect the integrity of the competition.
In this case, I think both of them are protecting their interests for as long as possible.
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I want to clarify a few points: Should the game have been moved last Sat (dome, w/e), likely yes if able. Should the hurricane take priority for Safety when most of the state of Florida was doing the right thing to protect lives? Yes.
Do we get to enjoy the chaos? Absolutely.
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I have to just jump in here and say I loved the Seinfeld allusion in the post about taking and keeping a reservation. It made me smile.
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How ’bout this: move both teams Nov. 19th cupcake home game to after the SEC Championship game and play LSU at Florida on Nov. 19th.
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Interesting idea.
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I like it! Does it work with the cupcakes’ schedules?
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Nobody is playing that week in the FBS other than Army Navy, leaving South Alabama is free.
FCS has playoffs but Presbyterian is 1-4. The safe money is on them being available.
http://www.gobluehose.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=10734&SPSID=89739
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Jonathan Ledbetter, son are you watching and listening to this.
You should along with the UGA AD.
Suspended for a second DUI in a nonmoving vehicle.
That is what we have here in the SEC ballsless front office. A group of DUI nonmoving decision makers.
Gators coaching staff saw that Tigers team without Les Miles, and said hell no, lets not play them just yet without a QB.
If Dawgs can defer to SEC and SC for a Sunday game, what is wrong with UF and LSU playing at end of season.
Nobody else in SEC or outside or GHSA games should be impacted.
Not there issue or problem. None of them should move to accommodate the SEC office and these two teams.
Put the options in a houndstooth hat and let Saban or Butch Jones make a draw.
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Sankey should be fired.
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There is just no reason to excuse Foley’s role in blocking all options not located in Gainesville. No one holds him accountable for the hurricane, expects him to ignore the tragedy in Florida, or the greater need for emergency services elsewhere. This particular storm adhered to virtually every single model forecast several days in advance. He had plenty of time to make alternative, worst-case plans….if needed. Stick with Gainesville as Choice A, move to B when, and if, necessary. Simple. His pig headedness is totally why thi sgame wasn’t played. The fabricated article written to excuse his role is shameful, as is those pretending he wasn’t the sole human reason this game wasn’t played. A lot of fools were uncovered in the past several days, and not all of them are named Foley, but he put all of this in place. There were several alternate locations available, and multiple dates. Give FU the forfeit for not going into emergency mode for purely selfish, myopic reasons.
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We are lead to believe that the Hurricane popped out of no where and poor Jeremy had no time to come up with a plan B.
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We obviously need a new SEC commissioner after watching this fiasco unfold. I think Les Miles would be a great choice. The press conferences alone would make it worthwhile.
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UT seems to forget they have to beat BAMA before this even becomes an issue
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there are only two sides in this argument: you are either a UT fan, or you’re not.
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Gators better watch out, Trump might fly down and grab their P***y
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THIS!!!!!
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It seems simple to me if you’re Greg Sankey. If you don’t play the game, neither of you are eligible for the SEC Championship game… which in Florida’s case is still a possibility. Now go work it out and get back to me with your plan. They can always call it off if Florida is mathematically eliminated.
So we’ll probably find out that Sankey doesn’t have the power to do that.
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