LSU, Florida agree to make up game Nov. 19, buy out opponents

— -- BATON ROUGE, La. --? LSU ?and Florida?will make up their game, but Gators athletic director Jeremy Foley is critical of LSU's role in the heated negotiations over where and when to play the game.

Hurricane Matthew forced last Saturday's game to be postponed, and on Thursday, the schools reached an agreement with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to move the game from Florida to LSU and to play Nov. 19 at Tiger Stadium.

"We made this decision to play the game in Baton Rouge," Foley said in a statement. "The conference office asked us to find a solution in working with LSU, yet LSU was never a true partner in our discussions. The Southeastern Conference offered some other solutions, and the LSU administration made it clear that they were unwilling to consider other reasonable options."

LSU did agree to play at Florida next year instead of hosting as originally planned, and the Tigers will again play in Gainesville in 2018 to resume the normal schedule rotation.?The agreement also stipulates the game will kick off no later than 3:30 p.m. ET, the Florida statement said. Florida fans who wish to purchase tickets will be able to do so at a discounted price.

LSU and Florida will also exercise their cancellation clauses for their home games originally scheduled for Nov. 19. It will cost LSU $1.5 million to buy out South Alabama and Florida $500,000 to buy out?Presbyterian.

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said his school was happy with Thursday's outcome.

"As previously reported, it was our wish to have played the game last weekend. But all options that we put on the table were declined," Alleva said in a news release.?

Alleva thanked the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey for their efforts to get the game rescheduled.?

"Historically, we have always enjoyed a great relationship with Florida," Alleva said. "We have great respect for their institution and their football program. I hope that we can all learn from this experience and as a league, be in a better position to deal with these situations in the future."

According to a release from the SEC, the conference's presidents and chancellors plan to alter existing policy to give the commissioner more leeway in settling future disputes like this, should the involved schools fail to reach a mutual agreement.

Current bylaws state that only the teams that play all eight conference games are eligible to play in Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

"It was important for us to come to a resolution," Sankey said in a statement. "Each university had its own set of concerns throughout the process; however, existing SEC regulations did not provide an avenue to resolve conflicting issues in a more timely manner. As I have repeatedly said, this game needed to be played. In the end, I want to give credit to the University of Florida for making concessions to move this year's game to Baton Rouge."

Florida coach Jim McElwain said he signed off on the change of venue and date.

"I wanted to play the game whatever it took," McElwain said.

Information from ESPN's Chris Low was used in this report.