Decision to play game on Sunday came with one condition from UGA

Georgia agreed to play Sunday’s game at Williams-Brice Stadium, but Bulldog athletic director Greg McGarity said during a Friday teleconference with reporters that decision came with one big condition.

“The key thing was hotel rooms. We did not want to be in position of having anything to do with displacing evacuees,” said McGarity, one day after the SEC announced it was moving Saturday’s contest between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks to Sunday as the result of Hurricane Matthew.

“That was something that would not have been acceptable on any level, but South Carolina did come up with an option,” McGarity continued. “We weren’t going to do that.”

According to McGarity, that option is a federal facility located on the campus at South Carolina, one which can serve as a hotel and where the team can hold meetings and do its normal preparation for Sunday’s 2:30 kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium.

The team will bus over to Columbia on Saturday.

“It’s not a public facility, it’s a private government building that our staff is checking on this morning,” McGarity said. “South Carolina felt very comfortable that they would be able to accommodate a group of essential staff members and obviously student athletes in a manner that would be an option to us staying in a public hotel.”

McGarity said an offer was made to play the game in Athens.

“We made that overture early on, early in the week when we knew that everyone needed to pay attention to Matthew. I do think that possibly that could have been an option, if, the services for security and EMTs could not have been provided,” McGarity said. “I think that was the situation in Gainesville and that was the situation in Columbia. If it had reached that level in services being able to be provided perhaps we could played here but it never reached that point, even though the governor (South Carolina Governor (Nikki Haley) had mentioned that state services would not be provided as was mentioned in the papers and reinforced by the South Carolina staff.”

He said the Georgia Dome was never an option, but cancelling the contest – like what happened to LSU and Florida – was.

“I think everything was on the table. But I think the big difference between the Gainesville scenario and the Columbia scenario was Gainesville was right in the middle. They’re going to have maybe 40-, 50-, maybe 60-mph winds in the city of Gainesville,” McGarity said. “The difference is Columbia, they’ll have some wind and some rain but nothing to the magnitude that they’re experiencing in Gainesville, so the two really aren’t similar. They’re very different. The situation that Jeremy (Foley) was facing in Gainesville was different than what Ray was facing in Columbia. If the security services were not going to be able to be provided up to the standards that South Carolina felt comfortable with then I’m sure their decision would not be what they reached last night.”

But cancelling the game was not something either program wanted to do.

“Throughout the discussions, I think everybody wanted to play the game because there’s just not really a way to make it up,” McGarity said. “South Carolina is open next week and we’re open before the Florida game so there weren’t really any makeup days and we knew with the city of Columbia being able to host it we felt confident that the game could be play in Columbia and the discussion was Saturday and Sunday and the way it ended up was Sunday was the best day.”

McGarity said the conference office and Commissioner Greg Sankey made the final call on the game being moved.

Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart was also involved from Day 1.

“When this came up as something we needed to watch early in the week, between Josh Lee (Director of Football Operations), myself and Kirby we stayed in constant communication,” McGarity said. “Kirby participated in the conference call last night when the final decision was made just to be able to hear exactly the dynamics involved and be able to listen to the whole situation that involved both presidents, athletic directors, conference officials and other support staff.”

As for what took so long, McGarity said the changing forecast played a huge role.

“Things were changing by the hour and we had discussion around lunchtime what it looked like was happening, and as the day progressed the storm was moving inward more than what they anticipated which led to the Sunday decision as far as the game goes,” he said. “So we had a conference call around 8:15 last night, the final call to determine a course of action and we all were in agreement that this was the right thing to do so we all moved forward.”

According to weather.com, the forecast for Columbia on Sunday calls for sunny skies and a temperate of 78 degrees.

“I think we’re pretty clear, sunny skies and 70s, which is totally different than what it would have been Saturday night,” McGarity said. “I think there was strong winds and 30 percent chance of rain Saturday night, so Sunday, according to all the reports is supposed to be a beautiful day.”