Mother Nature’s Power

Last week, Hurricane Matthew’s wrath created havoc on both the ACC and SEC conference races.  The LSU game at Florida was postponed.  Since both squads are potential contenders in their divisions, the SEC Commissioner pronounced that the game would be played.  However, in ensuing days the difficulty in rescheduling provided a migraine headache for all.

The intrigue in the days leading up to the postponement and its aftermath would be worthy of an Agatha Christie mystery.  LSU indicated that they really wanted to play last weekend and reportedly offered to play the game on Sunday and made the extraordinary offer of not taking any of the needed local hotel rooms.  The Tiger AD, Joe Aleva, indicated that LSU would have been willing to fly in on Sunday morning and fly out Sunday evening.   No dice.  Georgia’s SEC game at South Carolina was moved back to Sunday.  Why could not the Gators have done the same?  We are admittedly unaware of the degree of  potential issues with having enough security on short notice, especially when the locals undoubtedly had hurricane-related issues to deal with.

Still, College Football Odyssey had some suspicions.  Was the thinking on the part of Jeremy Foley, Florida AD, that the Gators could avoid a difficult Bayou Bengal team and backdoor into the SEC East championship with a 6-1 record?  Remember that the Gators will lose any tiebreaker to a Tennessee team winding up with an identical 6-2 SEC mark.  No mention of this was named in the mainstream press last weekend.  Further, the Gators QB, Luke Del Rio had not played in weeks as he was recovering from an injury.  So, we are not sure how eager Florida was to play the game.

Two possible dates to reschedule  emerged:  October 29 and November 19.  To play on October 29 (LSU’s open date), the World’s Biggest Cocktail Party (Georgia-Florida) would have to be moved up one week to October 22, current open dates for both the Gators and the Bulldogs.  This is a big, unique extravaganza that involves a lot of planning by fans and the City of Jacksonville.  Far from perfect!

The November 19 date would involve buyouts of two non-SEC opponents.  Florida is paying Presbyterian $500,000, while LSU was on the hook for $1.5 million as its payout to host South Alabama.  LSU would not budge on its insistence on having a November 19 home game, much to the chagrin of Florida.  For LSU to travel to Florida on November 19 would had meant 3 difficult SEC road games in a 12-day span.

Earlier this week, the intrigue deepened when the SEC office made it clear that one had to play 8 SEC conference games to be eligible to play for the title.  Hmm, once that was made crystal clear, we wondered if Florida would have liked to redo its posture last weekend.

Florida eventually relented and agreed to play in Baton Rouge on November 19.  Buyout money went to Presbyterian and South Alabama.  LSU will play its 2017 and 2018 games against Florida in Gainesville.  The loss of TWO home games for the 2016 Gators is estimated to cost the Florida athletic coffers $7.8 million dollars, some of which will be recouped by insurance.

Interim LSU coach, Ed Orgeron, gushed over the outcome.  Maybe, in part, because the Cajun native would lick Joe Aleva’s shoes if it meant he could be the permanent LSU coach in 2017.  Orgeron was thrilled with the preservation of the Bayou Bengal’s October 29 opening date because of the magnitude of the Alabama dogfight the following Saturday.  Still, at Arkansas, Florida and at Texas A&M is a gauntlet few would relish.

Jeremy Foley was subtly bad mouthing LSU for not being more flexible.  Given the outcome, you have to wonder if he would turn back time to a week ago if it was in his power.

While Matthew did cause postponement/rescheduling of some other games, none of the 4 games, involving the 4 ACC teams located in North Carolina, were postponed.  It is far to say that 3 of the losing teams might have won in good weather, given how their prolific passing attacks were neutered by the weather.

The worst weather appeared to be in Raleigh as the game was played in a wind-buffeted monsoon.  Neither North Carolina State nor Notre Dame could amass 200 yards of total offense.  This was supposed to be an offensive shootout,  as the initial 68 point total set by Las Vegas indicated.  Instead, NC State won, 10-3, as they scored the game’s only TD  on a blocked punt.  Some pundits were surprised by the Irish’s number of passing attempts in the unforgiving weather.

North Carolina had one of the nation’s most prolific passing attacks, led by laser accurate QB Mitch Trubisky.  The Tar Heels were held to a field goal and were rolled by Virgina Tech.  Similarly, pass first and pass often Syracuse could similarly not crack double digits in their loss at Wake Forest.

At season’s end, we suspect the impact of Hurricane Matthew, viewed in retrospect, will not be trivial.