Joe Alleva, LSU vice chancellor and director of athletics, got a good impression of LSU football in his first game with his new job.
Alleva saw LSU, the then-defending national champions, annihilate Appalachian State, 41-13, to open the 2008 season.
But he wasn’t completely satisfied after the opening-game win.
Alleva questioned scheduling a game against a school more than 800 miles away the same weekend that an in-state school, McNeese State, traveled to North Carolina to play the Tar Heels.
“Why does McNeese need to travel to Chapel Hill, and why does Appalachian State have to travel to Baton Rouge?” Alleva said. “After that we started to make a conscious effort to play some more in-state schools.”
As LSU welcomes Louisiana-Monroe this weekend for its second game this season against a Louisiana team, the Athletic Department is trying to change LSU’s schedule to feature more in-state opponents.
Southern Miss was originally scheduled to face the Tigers on Saturday, but the matchup was postponed until 2016.
“Since we played against North Carolina in Atlanta this year and West Virginia, I thought our schedule was tough enough,” said Senior Associate Athletic Director Verge Ausberry, who is in charge of scheduling for LSU. “We needed to balance it out a bit.”
ULM received $850,000 to travel 186 miles south to Baton Rouge, while McNeese State got $405,000 for its Oct. 16 date with the Tigers, Ausberry said.
Ausberry said it’s smart financially to book in-state games.
“It’s a great payday for them,” he said. “If you schedule an out-of-state team, you’re paying [$900,000] or more. I’d rather keep the money in state than go out of state and pay somebody.”
ULM Director of Athletics Bobby Staub said the Warhawks sold 2,500 tickets to the game — the first meeting of the teams since 2003 when LSU won, 49-7.
“Our kids really look forward to these kinds of games,” Staub said. “You get to play in front of 90,000 people and have the opportunity to go up against a great opponent.”
ULM also gets a bump in recruiting from the increased exposure.
“For UL-Monroe to tell recruits you have LSU on the schedule, and you’re going to come play a game in Tiger Stadium — that’s a huge advantage,” Alleva said.
LSU has played 10 in-state games since coach Les Miles took the reins of the football program in 2005.
“It’s a good piece of business for us,” Miles said. “Any time that you fill a stadium and the state can come in and root for two teams, I think it adds interest.”
LSU has only one Louisiana school on the calendar for next year — Northwestern State will be the home opener in Tiger Stadium in 2011.
“We only have four non-conference games we can play,” Alleva said. “Our goal is to try to play one of those BCS games and three other games hopefully in Tiger Stadium.”
LSU begins next season with a high-profile neutral field game against Oregon and travels to Morgantown, W.Va., for a return date with the Mountaineers before hosting Western Kentucky late in the season.
“Scheduling can kill a coach and can kill a program,” Ausberry said. “We want to play in front of a national audience against a national team, but also you want the opportunity to win the conference.”
Games have been set all the way until 2020, when LSU meets North Carolina State at home.
“It takes a lot of time [to make the schedule],” Ausberry said. “I play with this thing about three days a week for hours.”
TCU travels to Baton Rouge in 2013, and LSU will begin a home-and-home series with Oklahoma in 2018.
At least one out-of-conference spot remains open in every upcoming season.
“We’ve been working on some things, but we haven’t finalized anything,” Ausberry said.
The Tigers are contracted to play Tulane in the Superdome, but a date has not been set.
Ausberry said the Tigers may play another game in New Orleans against a team other than Tulane.
“New Orleans is a good place for us,” Ausberry said. “It might not be Tulane — it might be another school we play down there.”
Houston is another possible spot for a neutral-site game, Alleva said.
“We have a lot of alumni in Houston,” Alleva said.
In-state schools like ULL, NSU, Louisiana Tech and Southern could be future options, Ausberry said.
“We’ll give them the opportunity,” Ausberry said. “We’ll be fair with them. We’re not going to shortchange them.”
 
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Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]