Mr. Dooley,
Your column on the LSU-Florida debacle, entitled "Rational Thinking Wins the Day" misses the point big time and isn't very rational.
But at least you admit via the following paragraph of how and WHY this decision was reached.
"An athletic director’s job is to take care of his school’s athletic programs. How anyone thinks that piling your team on a plane, making it play a Sunday game to give it a short week for the next game, sending the players into a difficult environment when they thought they were going to play at home would be good for UF is beyond me."
Florida and Foley dug in and said if we can't play at noon on Saturday in Gainesville, we will make ZERO accomodation to do ANYTHING different to get the game in this weekend, now past weekend. And then you wonder why any fan or media would dare accuse Florida of trying to duck this game at this time?
And your writing of how Florida isn't afraid of LSU and wants this series to continue has zero to do with this situation. Nobody has said Florida doesn't want this series. The accusation is that Florida ducked this game at THIS TIME. THAT IS THE POINT.
Of course no school wants to lose a home game, Mr. Dooley, and of course no school wants fewer days to prepare for a game than they thought they had, but sometimes a school has to suck it up and do things it doesn't want to because of a natural disaster.
Do you really think that LSU wanted to open their "home" schedule in 2005 in Arizona because of Katrina? No but they did it. Do you really think the University of Tennessee wanted to fly to Baton Rouge on a Monday morning, because of Rita, play that same night, get back to Knoxville in the early morning of Tuesday and have less than 5 full days to play again, and a conference game at that? No but they did it. Did you write columns of how unfair that was?
Do you really think, Mr. Dooley, that South Carolina wanted to give up their home game last year and play in Baton Rouge? Of course not, but they did it. Interesting that Greg Sankey was the commissioner last year and also interesting that Jeremy Foley was not involved.
Now we get to this year and Mathew. It is rather curious and interesting that the cancellation/postponement of the Florida game came at the perfect "sweet spot" so as not to play at all right now. It was called off on Thursday which was too late to play it anywhere on Saturday and called off too early to see if the conditions would allow playing on Sunday.
And then you have Georgia and South Carolina who did wait until Friday to see if conditions would allow playing this past weekend, which they did. I sort of expect a column from you telling us how stupid the Georgia athletic director was to play the game because now Georgia only has 6 days to get ready for a conference game. I also assume your research has shown you that none of the Georgia players or South Carolina players had any family in the Georgia or South Carolina coastal areas because how else could they play on Sunday.
Mr. Dooley, do you know why Georgia and South Carolina played this past weekend? Because two schools wanted to. Do you know why Florida and LSU did not play this past weekend? Because one school DID NOT want to.
But as I started out, your highlighted paragraph really lays out the Florida motivation for why this game didn't get played. Just Foley's luck he was dealing with a very weak commissioner. I think the game would have already been played if Mike Slive were still commissioner.
Mr. Dooley, history has shown what other schools, like LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina have had to do in terms of sacrifice to get games played while dealing with natural disasters. History will also show what the University of Florida did to try to play a game while dealing with a natural disaster. They did zero. If we can't play at noon, on Saturday, in Gainesville, we ain't playing and we don't care the mess it may cause for the league or anybody else
Finally, don't play the moral high ground of safety and that any criticism of what took place is just a non caring attitude for people's safety and well being. Of course, safety is paramount.
But Florida could have played on Sunday IF THEY HAD WANTED TO. THEY DIDN'T.
A famous politician once said, "Never let a crisis go to waste". See if you can work the crisis to your advantage, and that is exactly what Jeremy Foley did.
Your defense of this rings hollow.
Your column on the LSU-Florida debacle, entitled "Rational Thinking Wins the Day" misses the point big time and isn't very rational.
But at least you admit via the following paragraph of how and WHY this decision was reached.
"An athletic director’s job is to take care of his school’s athletic programs. How anyone thinks that piling your team on a plane, making it play a Sunday game to give it a short week for the next game, sending the players into a difficult environment when they thought they were going to play at home would be good for UF is beyond me."
Florida and Foley dug in and said if we can't play at noon on Saturday in Gainesville, we will make ZERO accomodation to do ANYTHING different to get the game in this weekend, now past weekend. And then you wonder why any fan or media would dare accuse Florida of trying to duck this game at this time?
And your writing of how Florida isn't afraid of LSU and wants this series to continue has zero to do with this situation. Nobody has said Florida doesn't want this series. The accusation is that Florida ducked this game at THIS TIME. THAT IS THE POINT.
Of course no school wants to lose a home game, Mr. Dooley, and of course no school wants fewer days to prepare for a game than they thought they had, but sometimes a school has to suck it up and do things it doesn't want to because of a natural disaster.
Do you really think that LSU wanted to open their "home" schedule in 2005 in Arizona because of Katrina? No but they did it. Do you really think the University of Tennessee wanted to fly to Baton Rouge on a Monday morning, because of Rita, play that same night, get back to Knoxville in the early morning of Tuesday and have less than 5 full days to play again, and a conference game at that? No but they did it. Did you write columns of how unfair that was?
Do you really think, Mr. Dooley, that South Carolina wanted to give up their home game last year and play in Baton Rouge? Of course not, but they did it. Interesting that Greg Sankey was the commissioner last year and also interesting that Jeremy Foley was not involved.
Now we get to this year and Mathew. It is rather curious and interesting that the cancellation/postponement of the Florida game came at the perfect "sweet spot" so as not to play at all right now. It was called off on Thursday which was too late to play it anywhere on Saturday and called off too early to see if the conditions would allow playing on Sunday.
And then you have Georgia and South Carolina who did wait until Friday to see if conditions would allow playing this past weekend, which they did. I sort of expect a column from you telling us how stupid the Georgia athletic director was to play the game because now Georgia only has 6 days to get ready for a conference game. I also assume your research has shown you that none of the Georgia players or South Carolina players had any family in the Georgia or South Carolina coastal areas because how else could they play on Sunday.
Mr. Dooley, do you know why Georgia and South Carolina played this past weekend? Because two schools wanted to. Do you know why Florida and LSU did not play this past weekend? Because one school DID NOT want to.
But as I started out, your highlighted paragraph really lays out the Florida motivation for why this game didn't get played. Just Foley's luck he was dealing with a very weak commissioner. I think the game would have already been played if Mike Slive were still commissioner.
Mr. Dooley, history has shown what other schools, like LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina have had to do in terms of sacrifice to get games played while dealing with natural disasters. History will also show what the University of Florida did to try to play a game while dealing with a natural disaster. They did zero. If we can't play at noon, on Saturday, in Gainesville, we ain't playing and we don't care the mess it may cause for the league or anybody else
Finally, don't play the moral high ground of safety and that any criticism of what took place is just a non caring attitude for people's safety and well being. Of course, safety is paramount.
But Florida could have played on Sunday IF THEY HAD WANTED TO. THEY DIDN'T.
A famous politician once said, "Never let a crisis go to waste". See if you can work the crisis to your advantage, and that is exactly what Jeremy Foley did.
Your defense of this rings hollow.
