By now, you’ve heard the Florida-LSU impasse has been broken, with the schools agreeing to swap home games this season and next. It seems like a sensible solution, but the road getting there was anything but, based on some of the quotes and observations I’ve seen tonight.
So, in the end, Foley and Alleva were engaged in an epic pissing match that Foley’s mismanagement created that ended when Sankey made a threat that could have been put out there for public consumption before last weekend, which might have gone a long way towards getting Foley’s head out of his ass proactively. Well played, Commish.
And Foley backed down, not for the good of the conference, but because the SECCG threat carries more weight against Florida this season than LSU, given the relative strength of the two divisions. How he didn’t see that coming in the first place escapes me.
It’s not like Alleva’s done himself a lot of favors, though, when you look at how LSU’s 2017 schedule now shapes up.
There’s actually a fifth road game, at Mississippi State, plus a neutral site game against BYU to add to the mix. That’s some gauntlet.
By the way, do Gator season ticket holders get a refund?
The SEC really covered itself in glory on this one.
Get The Picture 
Blaming everyone about everything gets sort of old after a while.
There’s a good chance Alleva and Foley were just doing their jobs and a fair chance Sankey was doing his. Alleva was justified in demanding a home game. Foley was in a spot, too. He was right in trying to save a home game, plus he had the added drama of trying to guess the weather and potential after-effects of a hurricane.
I’m sure the last thing Sankey wanted to do was to get publicly in the middle of a dog fight between Alleva and Foley. And as it turned out, he didn’t need to.
Just because we aren’t 100% privy to all of the details, it doesn’t mean that other folks are totally off their rockers and failing at their jobs.
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Alleva was willing to play in Gainesville on Sunday. For some reason, Foley wouldn’t consider that. Sankey ‘s first mistake was not seeing the oncoming standoff and stepping in to prevent it.
Needless to say, I don’t agree with your take.
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Well said, BD.
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BD, while everyone was certainly trying to get the most for their respective constituencies, only Foley did so recklessly bringing this crisis to life. Last year SC bit the bullet when a crisis occurred and played in Baton Rouge….not what they preferred, but they adapted and everyone moved along. In 2005, LSU did the same with the impact of Katrina and moved a game to Arizona. This was not the path Foley took, he acted recklessly without a viable backup and brought all of this into play. I am no fan of Alleva from past actions, or Sankey for allowing this situation to reach crisis level, but Foley is the one who should be roasted for this, his actions were those of a petulant child not getting his way. The hurricane wasn’t his fault but his lack of leadership showed him unworthy of both his position and any respect.
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And to think that so many commenters on GTP (not you in particular, Mac) have held up Foley as a model AD, particularly when bashing McGarity.
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For what it is worth, I was told last Thursday that we essentially were given a choice last week – we could move the game to Athens or Atlanta, but would have to play two in a row in Columbia, or try for Sunday. Not sure why it took a week for this same proposition took a week to get communicated to Gainesville and BR.
I am also not sure why so many in the media are killing LSU – the hurricane passed Jacksonville Friday morning, and the game easily could have been played Sunday afternoon. Given the curvature of the coast and the location of the jet stream, there was a zero percent chance the hurricane would come onshore and begin moving west.
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Tell that to Shepard Smith. Tough to play a game when everyone is DEAD. https://youtu.be/7FjmxJeGOGA
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“UF isn’t afraid to play anybody …”
Except anyone out of conference on the road or outside the state of Florida …
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UF ain’t skeered! Unless you got a Halloween costume. http://www.theamericanmirror.com/u-florida-offers-247-counseling-students-troubled-halloween-costumes/
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A toast to all the Georgia fans who will be reported on October 28 and 29…
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“Dear UF Bias Education and Response Team,”
“There was (sniff) this guy who was wearing this T-shirt (sniff) of this bulldog screwing this gator…”
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Of course one of Florida’s 5 “road” games this year is in Jacksonville. 😉
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Don’t see what the big deal is.
We play five SEC road games every other year.
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I read Florida ticket holders do get a refund or can put it towards next year.
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“It’s evident that the University of Florida is not afraid to play anybody.”
Is that why they haven’t played a non conference road game outside of the state of Florida in 30 years?
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I would suggest Jeremy Foley eat a bag of dicks for the way he handled this whole thing, but I don’t want anyone thinking I condone cannibalism.
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