Florida's strength of schedule actually gets better by not playing Idaho than it would have been if it had beaten Idaho.
Good point, Pat.
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From: gatornews@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatornews@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shane Ford
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2014 7:41 AM
To: GatorNEWS
Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Dooley: Best decision was made
Dooley: Best decision was made
An event staff member watches as fans take cover from the rain at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday.
Elizabeth Hamilton/Correspondent
By Pat Dooley
GAINESVILLE SUN Columnist
Published: Thursday, September 4, 2014 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, September 3, 2014 at 10:41 p.m.
To play or not to play? That was the question.
And there was no right answer.
You may think yours was the right one. The person standing next to you might disagree. I've heard a dozen scenarios and possibilities.
But this simple question was filled with complexities.
And in the end, Jeremy Foley and the university made the call I would have made.
I wrote Saturday night that I would not resume the game the week before the Florida-Georgia game. Why give Georgia any advantage going into that game? That game might be huge. It might not be. But it made no sense to play it while Georgia was eating cheeseburgers.
I've heard this argument — Florida could play its backups against Idaho. Hmm, weren't the Gators forced to do that against Georgia Southern? How'd that work out?
Besides, it takes two teams to play a game and there was no interest on the part of Idaho to disrupt its season and give up a bye week.
There was the December argument. Schedule it the week of the SEC title game, and if Florida is in it, you could cancel it then. I wouldn't want to put it in the heads of my players that they might not be in Atlanta. Not now, before the first game of the season has been played.
And if the game had been rescheduled for either that weekend or the following weekend, would there have been any interest? Why play a game in front of a small crowd just to pad the record of a season that would already have definition?
Florida's insurance will keep the University Athletic Association from taking a hit from the reimbursement for tickets sold. The funny thing is that most of the people who I talked to who gutted it out thought the whole experience was worth the price of admission. And if you left as the first lightning delay dragged on, you forfeited your right to any reimbursement anyway.
So it's an 11-game schedule that you hope is 12 and really hope ends up being 14. The canceling of the game won't have any effect on the College Football Playoff Committee. Florida's strength of schedule actually gets better by not playing Idaho than it would have been if it had beaten Idaho.
But that's getting way ahead of things. The question right now is how this will affect this team in the short term.
Instead of two easy games before the start of SEC play, Florida gets one. But I thought it was a good point Jeff Driskel made on Tuesday — that some teams opened with conference games. Others opened with tough non-conference opponents.
Having the two-game cushion was a luxury. But I tend to look at it this way — that was one less game where Florida could have suffered a major injury.
Maybe I'm jaded by the 2013 season, but who isn't? And we've already seen teams such as Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa State and Texas lose key players one week into the season.
Or maybe you could look at it this way — Florida's schedule, as tough as it is, just got more manageable. The Gators will play 11 games in 13 weeks.
We now have closure on Idaho and let's also remember that Idaho isn't a bus ride away like FAMU or FAU. Moscow, Idaho, is almost as far away as the other Moscow. That certainly played a part in the decision.
The Vandals made out like bandits, pocketing close to a million for one kickoff play and left Gainesville without a loss.
Not everybody is going to be happy, but I don't think there are that many people who are going to be upset. Today, you may make the argument that you wanted another home game, but would you feel the same way later in the year?
It's not that you are wrong if you wanted this game to be played because, as I said, there was no right answer.
Just the best one.
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