David Wharton: Making up is hard to do in the SEC

There figures to be lots of scribbling on whiteboards in the Southeastern Conference this week.

It's the sort of work coaches do when they diagram pass routes and defensive schemes, but the conjuring in the SEC will head a different direction.

The nation's premier football conference is dealing with a storm _ literally and figuratively _ as it ponders what to do about the Louisiana State-Florida game that was postponed because of Hurricane Matthew.

As Commissioner Greg Sankey said on the conference's website: "It's a situation that causes a great deal of angst."

With the death toll in the U.S. rising and flooding throughout much of the South, the game should be incidental, but that isn't how things work in a football-crazed part of the country.

The original postponement Thursday gave rise to conspiracy theories, many of them suggesting that Florida's athletic director had somehow worked the emergency situation to his school's advantage.

Developments over the weekend only exacerbated the matter.

Saturday morning dawned warm and partly sunny at Florida's campus in Gainesville _ with relatively light winds and minimal rain _ as Matthew remained off the coast.

Then, later in the day, Tennessee lost to Texas A&M in overtime, tightening the SEC East race. If Florida and LSU end the season without playing each other, it could wreak havoc on the division standings and potential tiebreaking procedures.

That's why the conference is pushing to reschedule.

"I want to see the game played," Sankey said. "We have to come together to do that."

The SEC staff has already devoted several days to diagramming possibilities on a whiteboard. There are no easy answers.

So far, the most likely solution involves both teams buying out nonconference opponents to create a mutual opening on Nov. 19. Florida seems amenable, but the change would leave LSU with three road games in a stretch of 12 days.

"I've obviously heard that particular idea, but there are others as well," Sankey said, adding that numerous suggestions "have been sent to us by thoughtful people."

With the South and the way it loves football, one can only imagine.