How important is home field advantage in college football and in particular the Southeastern Conference? It's a big enough advantage that officials with the University of Florida have no plans to move Saturday's game with LSU to an alternate site. That's even with the threat of major Hurricane Matthew looming for the area.

Officials from the two programs met via conference call yesterday to discuss alternate sites should they be determined to be necessary. No decision was made at that time. Officials did discuss playing the game at a neutral site such as Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.

You might recall it was during the sixth week of last year's college football season that the LSU South Carolina game was moved from Columbia South Carolina to Baton Rouge because of flooding. Should the Florida game need to be  moved you can bet there is no way the Gators will allow the game to be hosted in Death Valley.

While the planning for a weather scenario is a good preemptive strike chances are Matthew should not be a direct factor on Saturday when the game is scheduled to kick off at 11 AM Louisiana time.

Forecasters believe that Matthew will only brush the east coast of Florida. However, tropical forecasts are subject to a margin of error of several hundred miles. There will also be the possibility of tornadoes or other severe weather.  So, there is still a possibility this scenario could change.

If you're not familiar with the geography of the Sunshine State Gainesville is about 70 miles west of the Atlantic Coast. The worst weather the city of Gainseville should expect, if the forecasts hold true, would be rain and thunderstorms and near tropical storm force winds on Friday. By Saturday the forecast for Gainesville on Saturday is for cloudy skies and a gusty wind out of the northwest.

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