Sep 17, 2016; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida Gators defensive back Marcell Harris (26) is congratulated after he intercepted the ball against the North Texas Mean Green during the second quarter at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Photo Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
LSU-Florida football game, which was postponed last Saturday due to Hurricane Matthew, has been rescheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey announced Thursday.
LSU was originally scheduled to play South Alabama on November 19 in Baton Rouge, and Florida was scheduled to host Presbyterian on that day in Gainesville, Fla. LSU and Florida will use cancellation clauses for those respective games to open that date.
This year’s LSU-Florida game was originally scheduled to be played in Gainesville. As a result of moving this year’s game to Baton Rouge, LSU agreed to play the 2017 game in Gainesville, which was originally scheduled to be played in Baton Rouge. LSU will return to Gainesville in 2018.
“We made this decision to play the game in Baton Rouge,” Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. “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.”
There were some suggestions that the game would not be rescheduled at all this season. But SEC Commissioner Regulations stipulate that only teams that play all eight conference games would be eligible to play in Atlanta for the SEC Championship.
“As I’ve said all along — we will play anyone, anywhere, anytime,” said Florida head coach Jim McElwain in a statement. “I think I’ve made that pretty clear. The Gators never run from anyone or dodge anyone.”
Earlier this week, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said there was no way LSU would travel to Florida on Nov. 19 for the makeup game.
“One thing that we’re going to hold very firm on is that we have a home game November 19,” Alleva said Monday.
The SEC presidents and chancellors also established new procedures for the rescheduling of postponed games, granting the SEC commissioner the authority to determine the date and location of rescheduled games if the two institutions cannot reach an agreement.
“It was important for us to come to a resolution. Each university had its own set of concerns throughout this process, however existing SEC regulations did not provide an avenue to resolve conflicting issues in a more timely manner,” Sankey said in a statement. “As I have repeatedly said, this game needed to be played. In the end, I want to give credit to the University of Florida for making concessions to move this year’s game to Baton Rouge.”
