Report: LSU fighting to keep night home games on schedule

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva is trying to keep as many home night games on the Tigers schedule as possible.


I love college football night games and evidently so does LSU athletic director Joe Alleva. On Tuesday, Alleva spoke about his desire to keep all of his program’s home games played during the evening, according to The Advocate.

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The Tigers tried it out last season for the first time since 2009 with success as LSU recorded a 5-2 mark at home last season including a 10-7 upset win over No. 3 Ole Miss on October 25.

“The whole thing about permanent partners, that battle is lost for now,” Alleva said Friday, via The Advocate. “It won’t come up again for a vote for a long time. Given that, my No. 1 priority is night games in Tiger Stadium.”

Even though Alleva is adamant about keeping night games in Death Valley, that is not necessarily up to him. This is all subject to the wants of the SEC’s TV partners. CBS televised all but one of its SEC games during the day, and the only evening game they broadcasted was LSU’s 20-13 loss at Alabama on November 8.

The three non-conference home contests on the Tiger schedule appear set to start at night. McNeese State on Sept. 5, Eastern Michigan on Oct. 3 and Western Kentucky on Oct. 24 should all start in the evening.

Sept. 19 against Auburn, Oct. 17 against Florida, Nov. 14 against Arkansas,  and Nov. 28 against Texas A&M are the games that could see a change in time. All SEC contests, Alleva thinks that the Auburn and Arkansas games could be moved to earlier starts.

Whatever the case may be, Alleva is set on playing under the bright lights of Tiger Stadium.

“I don’t care what network we’re on,” Alleva said, “as long as we’re playing at night.”

It is interesting to see an athletic director who feels so passionately about playing at night and Tiger Stadium may be the best atmosphere for night games in college football, so you can understand Alleva’s stance on playing as many night games as possible to give his team the home-field advantage.

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