LSU coughs up second game to COVID-19
Scooter Hobbs
For such a shortened season, LSU sure is getting a lot open weeks.
The struggling Tigers’ scheduled Saturday home game against No. 1-ranked Alabama was postponed by the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday due a COVID-19 outbreak in the LSU program.
The question is, will it be rescheduled?
If it can’t, although the game obviously lost some pizazz because of the Tigers’ 2-3 start, it would be the first time since 1963 that the teams didn’t play in what has become one of the most-watched games of the season. A year ago when LSU was ranked No. 1 and Alabama No. 2, it even counted President Trump among the fans in attendance.
CBS had scheduled this season’s game for 5 p.m. Saturday with the oddity of a fall Masters’ golf tournament as its lead-in.
“Based on the number of student-athletes unavailable due to positive tests, contact tracing, and non-COVID injuries, we will not have the minimum number of scholarship players necessary to play on Saturday,” LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward said in a news release. “We are disappointed there will be no football in Tiger Stadium this weekend, but we will always prioritize the health and wellness of our student-athletes.
LSU-Alabama is one of three of this week’s SEC game that have been postponed — Mississippi State-Auburn due to both teams having pandemic issues, while an outbreak at Texas A&M forced postponement of the Aggies’ trip to Tennessee.
Those latter two games were rescheduled for Dec. 12, the date the SEC set aside in the revamped schedule in anticipation that games might need to be rescheduled.
As for LSU-Alabama, the SEC release said only that “The opportunity to reschedule” that game “will need to evaluated.”
It turns out that adjusted schedule, for all its safeguards and allowances, may not be quite pandemic proof.
This week is LSU’s second this season to be affected after the game originally scheduled at Florida on Oct. 17 was postponed after an outbreak among the Gators.
At the time, that game was rescheduled for the Dec. 12 catch-all date for makeups.
LSU has no open date available for Alabama (6-0).
The conference has also said some games might be made up on Dec. 19 if neither team is involved in the SEC Championship game, which will also be played that day.
But both of the opponents LSU would need to play in a makeup appear to be on a collision course to meet in the championship game.
Playing either LSU makeup game on the Dec. 12 date could be problematic.
If the LSU-Florida game was played that day, it could mean the Gators would be playing the week before the SEC championship game while Alabama would be off.
If the SEC were to decide a divisional game like Alabama-LSU takes precedence, then the Crimson Tide would be playing LSU the week before the championship while Florida is off.
It is also possible that the SEC could adjust other schedules to get both games played without giving one or the other an advantage for the championship
It could be done, but it would mean adjusting unaffected teams’ schedules.
“While it is unfortunate to have multiple postponements in the same week, we began the season with the understanding interruptions to the schedule were possible and we have remained focused throughout the season on the health of everyone around our programs,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a news release. “We must remain vigilant, within our programs and in our communities, to prevent the spread of the virus and to manage activities that contribute to these interruptions.”
If the Tigers are able to play at Arkansas as scheduled next week, it will be their second game in four weeks and third game in six weeks.
Associated Press