Tanner: Officials invested time, effort to arrive at best decision

South Carolina officials met around the clock and had multiple conversations with officials from Georgia, the SEC, National Weather Service, and state and local authorities this week before coming to the decision Thursday night to play the South Carolina-Georgia game on Sunday afternoon, athletics director Ray Tanner said in an interview with 107.5 The Game Friday afternoon.

Tanner said that the South Carolina administration tried to consider every possibility in making the right decision while never losing sight of what's most important: the safety of the people in the state of South Carolina.

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"We weren't exactly sure what we were going to be dealing with and we're still not 100 percent based on where the hurricane is right now," Tanner said. "So still assessing the situation and monitoring the path and what goes on, involving the Southeastern Conference, and Georgia and all their officials, and numerous conversations, we landed at a point that we feel is the best opportunity to play the football game, based on everything that we considered. As we all know, first and foremost was the safety of everybody from the state of South Carolina."

Tanner praised the leadership of Governor Nikki Haley in her efforts to keep the people of South Carolina safe and convince residents in coastal areas to evacuate to safer areas of the state.

As was previously known, Tanner said that the game will take place without the use of any state emergency personnel as Sheriff Leon Lott has provided alternative security.

Tanner emphasized that the school would never take emergency personnel away from a place that they were needed.

"That's really the first determination that you talk about, whether you can host any type of event, especially an athletic event, do you have the emergency personnel available or do they need to be somewhere else?" Tanner said. "With (Lott's) leadership, to be able to staff the game, if we do hold the game, and he was there for us, and he's provided the opportunities to fill in."

Tanner said that fans attending the game, which is set for a 2:36 kickoff, should make arrangements to arrive earlier than usual and to be patient.

“We are hopeful that we are in a very good situation on Sunday, especially weather-wise, which makes travel a little bit easier on everybody,” Tanner said. “We will see where that goes. We will do everything we can to keep it a normal game day experience.”

The South Carolina administration is still monitoring Hurricane Matthew to assess what may need to happen moving forward.

“It’s one of those things that you monitor, you take it very seriously, you spend a lot of time, and you try to be prepared and make a decision that is best for everybody and the right one," Tanner said. "Is it perfect? I'm sure it isn't, that people will not be happy with the decision, and some will be. We're doing our very best. We invested the time, the effort and we had the leadership to try to get us in the right position.”

Tanner said that there would be more information on gameday operations released in the future.

ALSO SEE: A couple of four-star prospects set to watch Gamecocks Sunday | What could proposed new NCAA rules mean for Carolina? | Weekly Thoughts from Josh Low