BATON ROUGE — After several conference calls with Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer, the 11 fellow athletics directors of the SEC along with University officials, LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert and Athletics Director Skip Bertman announced that this weekend’s athletics events may be played as scheduled.
The LSU football team will play Auburn at 6:45 p.m. on ESPN in Baton Rouge, La. The LSU volleyball team was scheduled to play host to the Tiger Classic tournament this weekend. However, due to Friday’s National Day of Mourning, the tournament will not be played.
The LSU soccer team will also observe the National Day of Mourning and not travel to Baltimore, Md., for scheduled matches against Towson and Loyola (Md.) College. The LSU men’s tennis team’s individual tournament at Rice University in Houston was cancelled.
Chancellor Emmert issued the following statement on behalf of LSU:
“The University community and indeed the whole city and state are shocked, saddened and outraged by the events over the past 24-36 hours,” Chancellor Emmert said at the press conference. “Our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims and the families of the tragedies that occurred in New York and Washington, D.C. We are also enormously proud of all the emergency workers and all of the medical workers and all of those who are providing aid and support to the victims and to those who are still trapped in this outrageous act. We also, of course, are conscious of the wishes of our elected leaders. We with them our best in finding the perpetrators of these heinous acts, and we certainly wish all of our military well as they deal with these issues.
“What is left is to ask ‘What can we do as citizens? How do we react to this terrible act?’ There are a number of things that we can do, and first of all the city (of Baton Rouge) has been responding very wonderfully in the donations of blood and support of the victims. There’s also been a great deal of support financially. We at the University want to make sure that we do everything that we can do to show our support and respect for those who were victims of these crimes.
“Beyond our prayers and our financial support, we also want to demonstrate that life goes on. Indeed as Americans, we are committed to not allowing our freedoms to be infringed by terrorists, that we are going to continue doing those thing that Americans do. In that context, the SEC presidents and chancellors had a teleconference today, as did the athletics directors, and we decided that we will continue with our athletic schedule, including our football games that are scheduled for this Saturday. We will take all precautions necessary to make sure that our students, our student-athletes and our fans are protected. We are going to make sure that we have done everything that is prudent to make sure that the areas are as secure as humanly possible. We are also going to conduct a variety of ceremonies at the game in order to show our commitment to all of the victims and our sadness for the events that have occurred. We will be, as a conference, contributing a significant amount of money from the institutions, television and the game receipts so that the SEC institutions and the SEC itself will contribute a total of $1 million to the victims of these tragedies.
“We are going to be taking a handful of precautions:
A few of the security measures:
- Gates open at 3:45 p.m. for 6:45 p.m. scheduled kickoff
- Band will walk down to Tiger Stadium at approximately 4 p.m. and enter at 4:30 p.m.
- Fans are asked not to bring bags or backpacks of any kind to the game; bags brought into Tiger Stadium will be checked thoroughly.
- Additional law enforcement personnel will be at the gates of Tiger Stadium
- No tents will be allowed on North Stadium Dr., South Stadium Drive or Nicholson Dr. on game day.
- Lots adjacent to Tiger Stadium will be closed 15 minutes before game time.
- No-fly zone over Tiger Stadium
Other news of note:
- No change in television schedule for the LSU football game has been announced by ESPN2
- National Day of Mourning set for Friday by the White House
- The Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) pre-game tailgating party has been moved. A time will be announced shortly
- Auburn hopes to fly to Baton Rouge via private charter, however, they are committed to bus if they cannot fly
- Plans have been made to replace officials who may not be able to attend the game
- The Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference have cancelled selected athletic events