BATON ROUGE — The LSU football team will play one NCAA Division I-A team from Louisiana each season for at least the next eight years, LSU Athletics Director Skip Bertman announced on Monday.
LSU will play Tulane, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Louisiana-Monroe on a rotating basis starting with a game against Louisiana-Lafayette next year in Baton Rouge. Next year’s Louisiana-Lafayette contest is scheduled for October 5 in Tiger Stadium.
“We’re excited about the agreement that we have reached with the four other Division I-A schools in Louisiana,” Bertman said. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to play in-state schools. That’s what flagship universities do and we’re committed to playing one Division I-A school from Louisiana for at least the next eight years.”
Bertman said that if any of the schools were to lose its Division I-A status, then the game against that team would not be played.
In 2003, the Tigers will face Louisiana Tech on November 1 in Baton Rouge, followed by a game on September 11 in 2004 against Louisiana-Monroe in Tiger Stadium.
Tulane returns to the schedule in 2005 in a game that was originally scheduled in 1996. The Tulane game in 2005 is currently scheduled to be played in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The Tigers will continue the rotation by facing UL-Lafayette in 2006, Louisiana Tech in 2007, UL-Monroe in 2008, and Tulane in 2009. All games, with the exception of the Tulane contest in 2005, will be played in Tiger Stadium.
LSU last played Louisiana Tech in 1941, while the Tigers and the Cajuns haven’t met since 1938. LSU has never played UL-Monroe in football. LSU is a combined 34-1 all-time against Louisiana Tech and UL-Lafayette.
The following is a listing of dates for LSU’s games against Louisiana schools:
Year Opponent Date Site
2002 Louisiana-Lafayette Oct. 5 Baton Rouge
2003 Louisiana Tech Nov. 1 Baton Rouge
2004 Louisiana-Monroe Sept. 11 Baton Rouge
2005 Tulane Sept. 3 New Orleans
2006 Louisiana-Lafayette Sept. 9 Baton Rouge
2007 Louisiana Tech Sept. 8 Baton Rouge
2008 Louisiana-Monroe Sept. 13 Baton Rouge
2009 Tulane Sept. 5 Baton Rouge
LSU Media Luncheon Skip Bertman Quotes
“You’ve seen me with a sling, and it happened last Monday. I had some rotator cup surgery. I hurt it counting all the money here. No, it’s from fungo bats, over the years. I put it off the last few years and I went in. But I’m sucking it up here without the sling.
“This press conference was set up before the game, last weekend. I don’t want to take anything away from last week’s game or the coming games, those naturally are the most important things. But I have had a lot of questions over the last two weeks. Dan Radakovich, the Senior Associate Athletic Director, worked very hard and we were able to get some results here. We are able to make go with an announcement. Remember, this has nothing to do with baseball, this is Skip Bertman the Atletic Director.
“I want to tell you a little history first. 40 years ago, Adolph Rupp, the basketball coach for Kentucky said, ‘There is no reason to play anybody in-state, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain.’ He passed that on to Joe B. Hall. Dean Smith coached with Joe B. Hall. Dale Brown and a myriad of other basketball coaches took that with them, and it was all about Louisville playing the University of Kentucky in basketball. Since then they have played many times, and that just simply isn’t true anymore.
“We want to make the announcement that we are going to play one in-state school, besides Tulane, which you have seen many times, each year through the next eight years.
“Like many things, one of the things that drives this is financial. When we played Utah State, we paid them $550,000. They had to charter a plane and whatever expenses. When they got back all the money went to Utah. When we played Utah State, there were 87,756 tickets sold. That is 4,600 short of what we should be selling. That is $130,00 because the stadium wasn’t filled. Worse than that, there were less than 80,000 people in the ballpark when we played Utah State. Those people that aren’t there can’t help you buy groceries. It is a good business decision.
“In order to play University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech and University of Louisiana-Monroe, we dropped Central Florida, San Jose State, Tulsa, Troy State and New Mexico State. We replaced them, as you can see on your sheet, with those schools.
“I think number one is: we are a charity, like any charity. We have no tax dollars. There are no tax dollars. We are not the Saints. The state does not give us any money. In addition, I think these people will fill the ballpark. I think that will happen. I think they are worthwhile opponents. As a charity, you’ve got seven events that are big money makers. They are called football games. If we don’t win, and if we don’t fill the stadium, Saturday night and we don’t sell the groceries then we can’t compete. That’s one of the reasons for doing this.
“The second reason is, I think that is what flagship universities do. Flagship schools don’t worry about, ‘What if we lose?’ Flagship schools don’t worry about, ‘Are we helping the opposition?’ Flagship schools get up and do what they are supposed to do. This is good for everyone. If somebody else should benefit, like one of our opponents, then that is good too. We are not afraid that our opponents would get better. We don’t recruit the same people that these teams are recruiting. Just this year, Michigan State beat Central Michigan, Michigan beat Western Michigan, Ohio State beat Akron, Texas Tech beat North Texas, North Carolina beat East Carolina and Illinois beat Northern Illinois. Oklahoma plays Tulsa, Tennessee plays Memphis and a myriad of others.
“Number three: we think that most of the kids that play for the in-state schools have never been on our campus. We think their parents have never been on our campus. It would be our honor to have all Louisianans on our campus. I think that this experience for the other teams would help the siblings, the younger brothers and sisters. When these kids are parents, I think that maybe their kids will then come to LSU.
“What if we lose? My God. I think that is possible. It is a football game and anything can happen. Naturally, we don’t think that we will lose. But of course that could happen. I would never underestimate the intelligence of people, but I think it is silly and I think we all realize that if we should lose to school “X” I don’t think all Louisiana football players will flock to that school. That is not going to happen. I think if we should happen to lose once over a period of time I think we will still be the best football program in the state of Louisiana.
“Lastly, I want to say that I think this is a unifying event. I think on a higher plane, on an esoteric level it is a unifying event. I want to make it clear that our chancellor, our president, nobody on the board of supervisors, there has been no political pressure for me to do this. You know me, that is the truth. But when I took this to Nick Saban and took it to the Chancellor and took it to the Board of Supervisors and explained it, as we have seen here today, they all said, “that is a pretty good idea.” That is why we are going with it. Everybody is on board.
“Secondly, we have a home and home with Virginia Tech, Arizona and two home and homes with Notre Dame over this decade. We’ve also put calls in to University of Maryland, North Carolina and Colorado looking for future opponents. This is a continuous process. From time to time I will call in. I will give this update.”
LSU head coach Nick Saban
“Even though we are disappointed in the outcome of what happened in the game Saturday night, I think there were some positive things that came out of the game. Michael Clayton obviously made some outstanding plays in the game. Domanick Davis had probably the best game of the year. Norman LeJuene, who had been out for several weeks since the Tennessee game with a neck injury, came in the game and played very, very well for us when Lionel Thomas got an ankle injury He was a real positive in the secondary for us, made some good plays.
“I was pleased with the way we came out in the third quarter and really turned the game around. We had six consecutive stops on defense where they had to punt the ball, three after we got ahead 24-21. We just couldn’t get control of the game and one good drive, maybe another score, would have been able to get us over the hump.
“There is plenty of things to get corrected. The things we are most concerned about are that we want our guys to compete hard, play hard all the time like I talk about. I think their determination to prepare and their enthusiasm is going to come from their determination and I think that is going to be critical as we move forward. That we continue to get that from our players is the way we are going to improve, that’s the way we’re going to get better.
“I see things happen all the time in college football. Auburn beats Florida one week loses badly to Arkansas the next. You see it every weekend in games. It seems to be harder and harder to maintain the level of enthusiasm to play with consistency and that’s been the thing that our team has not been able to do this year. I think as much as any that I’ve ever been around, our team has controlled the outcome in every game, except for the Florida game, based on the consistency that we’ve executed with in the game and the intensity that we’ve maintained in the game for 60 minutes. So, if we are going to be capable of resurgence, which I think is really important the way things are happening in college football right now, those are the things that are going to help us do that.
“This is not necessarily the time to be a nay-sayer. We’re trying to build a program here. Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re not pleased with the consistency our team has played with and we’re certainly going to try to get them to play with more consistency. But, we’re also trying to change the mentality to be able to do that all the time. Sometimes we have responded favorably to it and sometimes we haven’t. I think we are just going to have to try to change that over time.
“One of the biggest problems with this team has been the expectations that everybody had for this team. Now there is negativism and disappointment on a lot of fronts. But, for everyone to stay positive, including the fans and all the people who support LSU as a program, is very key to the long term success of the program. That’s what we came here to do and that is what we stay committed to and that is what we are going to continue to do in as positive way as we can.
“Alabama is an excellent football team. It is an opportunity for us to win a third football game on the road, which one of our goals was to have a winning season on the road. They have excellent football players. Their record does not indicate the quality of team they have. They have lost very, very close games. They have had some teams come back on them in some close games. But they some very talented players on the defensive side of the ball and on the offensive side of the ball. Their ability to run the football has been a real key for them. It is certainly that Tyler Watts has done very well for them. Their offense has been productive in terms of their point production all year long. This is a very good team that we are playing, so we have a tremendous challenge in front of us and hopefully our players will respond to it in the positive proper way and look at it as a challenge.
“We have a couple guys that are banged up. Unfortunately three of them are at the same position, I think you can name them all. I don’t think Toefield is any worse and hopefully he’ll be further along as the week goes on than he was a week ago. We’re not going to practice today but if we were Domanick Davis would be unable to practice because of an ankle and so would Devery Henderson. We are hopeful these guys will be back later in the week. Rob Sale also got a twisted ankle this week. We have a lot of ankle injuries for some reason. Lionel Thomas has the same so we have five guys with ankles.?
On the new future scheduling against Louisiana teams:
“I am very supportive. I think it’s a good business decision for the institution. Philosophically, you want to play as quality of teams as we can. But we also have a need to play seven home games from a business stand point. So, we are looking for ways to create interest for our fans. It is much more beneficial for the program long term to help some of those schools in state and play them. Maybe at some point in time we may not be able to win one of those games. But I still think to keep the money in the state, share the wealth, help some of those institutions, create interest for our fans in the state and from a business stand point are all very positive things for us. We did a similar thing at Michigan State, playing Eastern, Central and Western Michigan which were the three Division I teams in the state. It always created a lot of interest for the fans and it was a positive thing. I think it is a good decision by Skip to do it and I am very supportive of it.?