LSU gained an additional home this season, as disastrous flooding throughout the state of South Carolina forced the school to relocate the Gamecocks' upcoming football game against the Tigers.
The school confirmed in a news release Wednesday the South Carolina-LSU matchup would be played in Baton Rouge, La. instead of Columbia, S.C. The University of South Carolina (USC) cancelled all its classes this week and decided cancelling a home football game would be equally beneficial for the region.
"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," University President Harris Pastides said in a statement. "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."
In conjunction with the SEC, as the game is a conference matchup, USC and LSU have yet to finalize a kickoff time or ticketing details, ESPN reported. The Gamecocks football team will still practice in Columbia until they travel to Baton Rouge on Friday.
Gov. Nikki Hayley said the state is still waiting for floodwaters to recede in the central part of the state and that officials are still focused on recovering, The Associated Press reported.
"Our football team, obviously, we wanted to do the right thing for our community, for our state, and especially all the victims of the devastating flood we had here this past weekend," South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier said on ESPN's "SportsCenter." "If it's best not for us to play here then we're going to play at LSU and that was a decision our governor, law enforcement, our president, all those way above our football team... made this decision and I believe it's the right one."
