Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
By Hunt Palmer
College football scheduling is an art, not a science.
Every program has different goals and circumstances that shape the foundation for its schedule. LSU considers national stages, contending for championships and SEC mandates like the requirement of one non-conference game coming against a Power Four conference opponents.
Group of Five programs often chase checks once or twice a year to help with the budget.
Those parameters produce circumstances like this weekend in Baton Rouge. LSU enters its home opener against Louisiana Tech fresh off a victory on the road at Clemson.
The stage goes from primetime with the most recognizable crew in college football television to a streaming platform thousands will have to frantically find as kickoff approaches.
What a difference a week makes.
The SEC announced a move to nine conference game last month. That trims a non-conference game from the slate annually. It’s hard to nail down what that means for monster matchups between programs like LSU and Clemson and what that means for multiple mismatches every September.
LSU has played an in-state opponent in all three home openers under Brian Kelly, and the combined score of those three contests, if you want to call them that, has been 181-48.
Louisiana Tech isn’t an FCS program like Southern, Grambling and Nicholls, but the Bulldogs enter Tiger Stadium 37.5 point underdogs, having lost all five Power Four games they’ve played under Sonny Cumbie by double digits.
From a competition standpoint, the intrigue is minimal. Do the ancillary factors justify the games?
Cumbie sees the positives.
“Yeah, I think the in-state part is a great point,” Cumbie said. “Because if you look at our roster and their roster, there’s a lot of kids that played park ball with these guys from the moment they were little kids. And they competed with them in high school or competed against them in high school. I think from an in-state standpoint, it makes a ton of sense. We’re able to go down there on a Friday afternoon. It’s a bus trip for us. Our fans, there’s a large contingency of our fans in Baton Rouge. Any time you play an in-state game, the intensity of it, the atmosphere is going to be probably the best that I’ve been a part of. I think that our kids are excited about that.”
Brian Kelly concurred on Tuesday when asked about scheduling.
“I still think there’s a place,” Kelly said. “We’re going to play 12 (games), so if you’ve got nine (conference games), and you play Power Four. There’s 10. I think the other two can come very easily from the state of Louisiana. I would still be in favor of doing that and hope that we do moving forward.”
While in-state battles in college athletics generally cultivate heated rivalries, LSU’s position in the state is different than Texas-Texas A&M or Auburn-Alabama. The school is the state’s flagship, and the rest play on a different level.
Because of that, LSU’s football program has offered support to programs around the state including Louisiana Tech. While the $1.6 million check Tech leaves with may be the most impactful product of the game, the relationship continues year-round.
“They’ve been so gracious to us every summer in terms of the camps,” Cumbie said. “We’re able to go down there, shoot, probably five or six times every summer and be part of their Elite prospects camp. There’s so many prospects at those camps. It’s a great recruiting tool for us and a great evaluation tool. We’ve had conversations there. They’ve always done nothing but open their doors to us with information on kids in terms of the camps.”
The LSU program is full of ties to Ruston and Louisiana Tech.
Coordinators Joe Sloan and Blake Baker both worked for the Bulldogs early in their careers. Quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay is a Tech legend who finished his college career second in college football history in passing touchdowns. Director of Football Operations John Randall Belton played at Louisiana Tech, and new defensive line coach Kyle Williams is a Ruston native.
On the other side, star Bulldog linebacker Kolbie Fields, the Preseason CUSA Defensive Player of the Year, played at LSU in 2022.
“There’s a lot of our players that have been teammates or have competed against these guys in high school,” Cumbie said. “Obviously, this is a lot bigger venue and a different arena. There’s gonna be a lot of guys who have their family and friends there against because of the in-state portion of it. There’s an added level of excitement for it. Any time you have that, it’s fun because you have bragging rights. There’s the relationship part of it, and you want to come out on top.”
Ultimately, Saturday should be a warm welcome home for the Tigers after the program’s first season-opening win in six years. The scoreboard will likely get lopsided, and Louisiana Tech will boost its budget.
Both teams enter conference play next week on their home fields, and the game will be long forgotten rather quickly.
No one knows for sure what the future of scheduling holds, but it sounds like, for better or for worse, both programs are committed to nights like Saturday.
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