BATON ROUGE — LSU has completed its 2003 football schedule with the addition of I-AA power Western Illinois, senior associate athletic director Dan Radakovich announced on Friday.
The Tigers will host Western Illinois at 7 p.m. in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 13. The Western Illinois game was added to the Tiger slate as a result of Marshall releasing LSU from its schedule.
“We were forced into this situation by Marshall having an opportunity to play a television game,” Radakovich said. “We made every attempt, including soliciting help from ESPN, to find a Division I-A opponent. With six months until the playing date, it was virtually impossible to find an opponent that matched the date we needed.
“We thought we had a deal to play San Jose State, but that fell through because San Jose plays a Thursday night game on Sept. 18 and they didn’t want to have only four days between games.
In the end, there was no Division I-A teams available to play in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 13.”
The LSU-Western Illinois contest will mark the first-ever meeting between the teams in football.
“Western Illinois is a first-class program that is among the top teams in Division I-AA,” Radakovich said. “I must complement their department, in particular athletic director Tim Van Alstine, for staying with us through this process.”
Western Illinois, who is a member of the Gateway Conference, posted an 11-2 overall mark last year and reached the second round of the I-AA playoffs before falling to eventual national champion Western Kentucky.