Louisiana governor: Budget crisis could cancel LSU football season

“Student athletes across the state would be ineligible to play next semester,” Governor John Bel Edwards said. “I don’t say this to scare you. But I am going to be honest with you

Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards said Thursday in a televised speech that if the state does not address its budget crisis, college sports—namely LSU football—could be canceled beginning in April, according toThe Times-Picayune.

Edwards has proposed a series of tax increases that he says Louisiana lawmakers must accept in order to prevent state-funded healthcare and higher education institutions from running out of money on April 30.

“Student athletes across the state would be ineligible to play next semester,” Edwards said. “I don’t say this to scare you. But I am going to be honest with you.

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“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.”

If Edwards’s tax proposal to fix Louisiana’s $940 million deficit is accepted, it would save only the Tigers’ 2016 season, as the state faces a $2 billion budget shortfall for the following fiscal year.