BATON ROUGE – LSU and Florida State have scheduled a two-game series in football beginning with the 2022 season-opener at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, the schools, along with ESPN Events, announced on Tuesday.
The 2022 season opener, which will be played on Sunday, Sept. 4, is the first of two games between the teams. LSU and Florida State will open the 2023 season on Labor Day weekend as the Tigers and Seminoles will meet on Sunday, Sept. 3, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
“Our team looks forward to playing Florida State to open the 2022 and 2023 seasons,” LSU head coach Ed Orgeron said. “To play a traditional power like Florida State is a challenge that excites our team. Playing in New Orleans and Orlando is a great opportunity for us to showcase to recruits the LSU program. We look forward to playing anyone, anywhere at any time.”
LSU is 2-7 all-time against Florida State with the 2022 meeting being the first between the teams since 1991 when the Seminoles posted a 27-16 win in Tiger Stadium.
“LSU and Florida State are two of college football’s most iconic brands, and we look forward to renewing this series,” Peter Derzis, ESPN senior vice president of college sports programming and ESPN Events, said. “When scheduling neutral-site games, our goal is always to provide fans and viewers an incredible matchup, and we feel we’ve done exactly that with these highly-anticipated events.”
The LSU-Florida State series dates back to 1968 when the Tigers beat the Seminoles, 31-27, in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
“We’ve been working on this for a few years,” Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said of the LSU-Florida State contest in New Orleans. “The stakes are high, but with LSU and FSU we have two nationally recognized programs within driving distance of New Orleans. We’re expecting a big and enthusiastic crowd here for Labor Day Weekend in 2022. It should be fun.”
“We are so excited to bring yet another thrilling kickoff game to Orlando, and we look forward to hosting college football fans from around the globe for this incredible matchup,” Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan said of the 2023 game. “Events like these have a profound impact on the Central Florida community, and we can’t wait to show the student-athletes, coaches, families and supporters of our longstanding partners in Tallahassee and Baton Rouge what makes Orlando one of the country’s top neutral-site destinations.”
The two-game series with Florida State continues a scheduling trend for the Tigers that will see LSU play high-profile non-conference games for the remainder of the decade. LSU plays host to Texas in Tiger Stadium this year after traveling to face the Longhorns in 2019.
LSU has future home-and-home games scheduled with UCLA (2021 and 2024), Clemson (2025 and 2026), Oklahoma (2027 and 2028), and Arizona State (2029 and 2030).