What would the state of Louisiana do without its most beloved football team? Gov. John Bel Edwards cautioned its residents this week that they could soon find out if tax increases aren’t approved.
Edwards has been pushing for tax increases to help compensate for a $940 million deficit, and he said in a televised address Thursday that the LSU football team could end up being cut due to concerns with higher education funding.
“Student athletes across the state would be ineligible to play next semester,” Edwards warned, according to Julia O’Donoghue of The Times-Picayune. “I don’t say this to scare you. But I am going to be honest with you. If you are a student attending one of these universities, it means that you will receive a grade of incomplete, many students will not be able to graduate, and student-athletes across the state at those schools will be ineligible to play next semester. That means you can say farewell to college football next fall.”
Edwards also pointed to far more important issues than football, including the potential to have to shut down hospice care for some patients and refuse kidney dialysis treatments for others. He insisted he is not using “scare tactics” and that all of the scenarios he laid out are legitimately possible.
There’s no way we can imagine the college football landscape without LSU. Plus, nobody wants to see what a rabid fan like this guy would do if the LSU football program was shut down. Perhaps it’s pure denial, but I just don’t see it happening.
