Read the schedule’s fine print
Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, August 9, 2017
<p class="p1">It’s been there all along for LSU.</p><p class="p1">It’s not like it’s a big secret.</p><p class="p1">But it doesn’t really jump out at you. It was to put it out of mind.</p><p class="p1">Maybe that’s why you don’t hear much about it when all the preseason crystal balls light up with cocksure predictions of how this and that will play out.</p><p class="p1">You never hear those experts mention it.</p><p class="p1">But it’s there.</p><p class="p1">Take a closer look.</p><p class="p1">At some point the reality of LSU’s football schedule is going to dawn on people.</p><p class="p1">You can find one at most any place around town, a poster on the wall that, at first glance, doesn’t look any different from year to year.</p><p class="p1">But go through it from top to bottom.</p><p class="p1">Do the math.</p><p class="p1">Something doesn’t add up.</p><p class="p1">But it’s not a misprint.</p><p class="p1">Yes, in Southeastern Conference play, LSU has only three home games and five road games.</p><p class="p1">You forgot, didn’t you?</p><p class="p1">The Tigers’ home SEC games will be Auburn, Arkansas and Texas A&M.</p><p class="p1">They’ll go on the road for Mississippi State, Florida, Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee.</p><p class="p1">It has happened before in the SEC, but never before was it premeditated.</p><p class="p1">It doesn’t seem fair — for this season, at least.</p><p class="p1">Why would one team have to start out the season at a disadvantage?</p><p class="p1">And you wonder what the rest of the SEC East thinks about Florida having five home games?</p><p class="p1">Yet some would say it’s only fair.</p><p class="p1">And LSU has nobody but itself to blame.</p><p class="p1">The last two seasons the Tigers have had five home SEC games and three road games, and neither time did it help them get any closer to Atlanta for the SEC championship game.</p><p class="p1">It certainly wasn’t planned that way. Nature got in the way both times.</p><p class="p1">In 2015 the South Carolina game was hastily moved from Columbia to Baton Rouge and was played on its scheduled date.</p><p class="p1">There wasn’t much choice then. Severe flooding in Columbia forced the move and LSU hastily opened its doors, got the stadium ready and mobilized its game-day support army. </p><p class="p1">LSU even went through some foolish shenanigans of painting up the field like it was a Carolina home game and the Tigers marching band managed to squeeze out a passable version of the South Carolina alma mater.</p><p class="p1">It didn’t fool anybody, but it was the thought that mattered. LSU and the Gamecocks don’t play every year so it was quickly forgotten. No repercussions.</p><p class="p1">Trivia note: For all the pain and suffering Steve Spurrier caused LSU over the years, his last game as a head coach turned out to be an inglorious 45-24 loss in a one-third full Tiger Stadium. He retired abruptly the following Monday.</p><p class="p1">Last year, as you recall, LSU’s game at Florida got moved to Baton Rouge due to Hurricane Matthew.</p><p class="p1">It was a lot more complicated.</p><p class="p1">Matthew turned out to be a dud and, if not for Florida stalling all week, the game could have been played somewhere in Florida.</p><p class="p1">So LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva played “hard ball” — or so he thought — in what was referred to as “negotiations” at the time.</p><p class="p1">Both teams canceled later rent-a-win games, but Alleva was adamant that LSU wasn’t giving up a home game.</p><p class="p1">It didn’t look bad on the surface for LSU when it was finally agreed that the game would be played — in Baton Rouge — five weeks later.</p><p class="p1">But there was some fine print in the deal — the scheduled game for this year would be in Gainesville, resulting in the unbalanced home-away schedule.</p><p class="p1">And the Tigers might as well pick up a timeshare while there this year; they’ll be going back next year too.</p><p class="p1">The whole fiasco wasn’t the finest hour for SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who was slow to step in. However, at the time there was some question as to how much authority he had.</p><p class="p1">That’s been cleared up now. It might be referred to as the LSU-Florida rule, but at the spring meetings in May the conference clarified that, when Mother Nature interferes with the original plan, the commissioner has the power to tell teams when, where and how they’re going to get a game played.</p><p class="p1">This might have saved LSU from itself last year. Sankey no doubt would have told LSU to quit pouting and pack its bags for Gainesville.</p><p class="p1">Instead, Alleva was allowed to negotiate the Tigers into a big disadvantage for this season.</p><p class="p1">It’s like going to an ATM with an extravagant service charge. You don’t notice it at the time. The money looks and feels good when it comes squirting out. Run and spend it. Quick. But inevitably the bill will come due.</p><p class="p1">And it did.</p><p class="p1">Last year for the Tigers, sucking it up and going to play the rescheduled game in Gainesville would have meant finishing the season with three consecutive road games — at Arkansas, at Florida, at Texas A&M.</p><p class="p1">As it turned out, with Florida moved to Baton Rouge, the Tigers won the two road games easily.</p><p class="p1">In fact, the Arkansas game might have been LSU’s best of the season and the A&M game was the best offensive showing. The Tigers became road warriors.</p><p class="p1">The Florida game at home, on the other hand, was comedy of LSU errors — Derrius Guice going the wrong way on a potential winning score on the final play was just the last of many punch lines in a 16-10 loss.</p><p class="p1">And now the Gators get the last laugh, with the next two games against LSU in Gainesville.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p3"><strong>Scooter Hobbs</strong> covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com</p>
