By Matt Moscona
LSU and SMU announced a future home-and-home series Monday that will see the Mustangs visit Tiger Stadium in 2028 and the Tigers head to Dallas in 2029. LSU Executive Deputy AD Verge Ausberry told Matt Moscona on “After Further Review” that the 2029 game in Dallas could be played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The Mustangs play their home games at Gerald J. Ford Stadium which seats 32,000 people. Jerry World holds 80,000 people.
Below is a transcript of the interview. Watch the full interview at the bottom of this post.
Q: How long have you been working on this?
A: “I’ve been working on it for a while. You know, you have to remember that you look back to where our schedule was — we lost the Oklahoma series that was a home-and-home. You know, they became a conference team. We lost that game. So we’ve been working out there trying to reschedule games, you know at Houston and playing University of Houston in Houston next year, 2027, and we’re playing SMU in 2028 in a home-and-home. Been working on those deals, trying to get those situated.”
“The thing we’re afraid of is scheduling too early, because you didn’t know if you have eight or nine games. That’s why we’re being very slow on future scheduling right now. Until that’s determined by the ADs and presidents here, whenever they have those meetings — we’ll determine where we’re going to be in the future schedule.”
Q: First, can you elaborate a little bit on the future with an eight or nine game schedule, what that might mean for the non-conference process?
A: “Well, the non-conference process definitely changed our philosophy a little bit. That’s why I think Coach Kelly, Scott Woodward and I get together and try to figure out how we want to go on with future scheduling. Austin Thomas also — to determine how many Power Five teams we play in the non-conference schedule and where we put the teams at.”
“And you know also, Matt, one thing we make sure of is that LSU always has seven home games. We can’t fall to that six-home-game number. So that’s the thing that’s important to us in this process and we just wait until that gets determined.”
“We’ve been working on it and going through different scenarios — who we’d play, if we go play five home games in conference and see part of four. So, those are the kinds of things we’ve been working through.”
Q: If they do go to a nine game schedule, is the expectation that there will still be the requirement for a Power Five non-conference opponent?
A: “You know, I feel that will be in place. I think the league will pretty much dictate that to us, but I can’t see them dropping that requirement. Few schools automatically have those right now. If you look at Georgia, you look at Florida, you look at South Carolina, and Kentucky — they automatically have that Power Four opponent built in.”
Q: I know you’ve explained this before — right now, you typically schedule a Power Five or Power Four opponent, two mid-level Group of Five teams, and an FCS school to round out the non-conference. If the SEC moves to a nine-game schedule, what changes? Do you drop the FCS game?
A: “This is our philosophy that we want to play every school in the state of Louisiana and keep those schools on the rotation. That’s good for us as a state. We’re the flagship. It’s good for all of our schools in, in the state of Louisiana. So, we definitely want to keep that going and the state rotation and you probably just drop another one of those non-conference games, we want to play the schools in the state of Louisiana in our region and that’s where we want to focus with our future scheduling.”
Q: Playing the marquee game in Week 1 as opposed to Week 2, and having a layup, so to speak, Week 1 — what’s the thought there on how you approach that?
A: You know, we look at everything right now and Week 0 games are in play. Also, we hadn’t discussed that in the past or in the future with the new scheduling formats and what’s coming out. We might do a Week 0 game every once in a while.”
“Just trying to focus on how this thing is going to look here in the future and how the schedule is going to look…We want to give our team, as you know, the biggest advantage.”
Q: The game in Dallas — is that gonna be an on campus game for SMU or going to be played at Jerry World?
A: “You know, we talked to the athletic director about that and as a possibility, that game could be in Jerry World. We don’t want to talk about that too early, but that’s something we left open in the contract where that game could be. Both of us understand that could be a marquee game in Dallas. And if…it presents itself, we would love to play a game there.”
Q: How does the revenue get split on that?
A: “That’s what we have to determine, because right now we are expecting it as a home-and-home. I think we left in the contract when it gets to that time, we look at the revenue, how much we generate ticket sales and those type of things to make a difference in payment.”
Q: Do you know the number off-hand of what you got to play the Southern Cal game?
A: “Yes, $5 million plus to play that.”
Q: So, LSU just shows up, gets a check for $5 million. I would assume you’re not going to get $5 million to play the game at SMU.
A: “No, no, no. That’s their home game. That’s the home-and-home we did. They’re coming back here to play the game. We play the first game here and then we go there. So, it’s a home-and-home. So, no it won’t be a payout like that. Not at all. “
Q: Do you all have those conversations, because of the revenue share era, in who you decide to schedule and where you play these games?
A: “No, not really. Not because of that. This year is what’s best for our team and the team we have coming back. And how we can get ourselves into preparation for play.”
Q: Is there any idea of a timeline on when the league may come to some decision on future scheduling model?
A: “I think they’re close. I think they’re getting close. I think there’s some more details that need to be worked out at the conference office and once that’s done, (we’ll) know here quickly, but it really holds up scheduling.”
“You know, you don’t go out there and schedule your conference games and say, ‘OK, you have nine games now.’ You end up with most schools buying their way out of these contracts and you don’t want to do that. Those are things we putting in those contracts now. You know we could be released from them, but you don’t want to go out there and schedule somebody you don’t have to. So, we’re trying to make sure that we have the future schedules set in place.”
Q: Is that game in Ireland going to happen?
A: “That has to be beneficial to us…It’s a possibility. Right now, everything and all options are available to us.”
