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LSU says USC game to kick off at 2:30 p.m.

8 years 5 months 1 week ago Wednesday, October 07 2015 Oct 7, 2015 October 07, 2015 4:45 PM October 07, 2015 in Sports
Source: WBRZ
By: WBRZ Staff

BATON ROUGE - LSU and the University of South Carolina said Wednesday they will move this weekend's game to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge due to historic flooding happening in South Carolina.

LSU Football posted on Twitter that kickoff will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. 

Sources initially told WBRZ's Michael Cauble that kickoff would remain at 11 a.m., the original kickoff time in South Carolina. The SEC and LSU later posted the official kickoff time.

"Yesterday, we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel classes for the week due to the stress 34,000 students would place on the region’s recovering infrastructure, there is no doubt 85,000 fans would exact the same toll,” said USC President Harris Pastides on Wednesday. “In the spirit of supporting our South Carolina community that is so supportive of Gamecock Nation, we have decided to move the game to Baton Rouge. The stress on law enforcement and first responders is too great. Moreover, we’ve had many in the Carolina family directly impacted by the flooding.”

The announcement that the game would be moved was made at 10:40 a.m., shortly after the SEC coaches' weekly teleconference with the media.

"We recognize and are very sympathetic. We recognize this is a difficult time. We want to support SC in anything they want to do," Miles said.

Spurrier said the decision was not up to the coaches, but up to "law enforcement, athletic directors, (university) presidents and the community" to do what's best for the people impacted by the flooding in his state. 

Heavy rainfall and historic flooding in South Carolina is blamed for the deaths of at least 16 people, and forced USC's campus to close for the rest of the week. Crews in Columbia are repairing a breach in a canal which threatens the water supply for 375,000 people.

Local news outlets also reported crews hauled 400 tons of rock to Beaver Dam in order to shore up a sinkhole there. Authorities ordered residents in about 1,000 homes downstream from the dam to evacuate immediately and seek higher ground in the event the dam doesn't hold.

LSU announced Wednesday that money from ticket sales, after LSU's expenses, will be given to South Carolina.

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