Few LSU students have taken the 10-hour, 550-mile trip from Baton Rouge to Fayetteville, Ark.
But 40 fans will have the opportunity this Saturday when the LSU basketball team plays Arkansas.
The students will take part in Student Government’s bus trip, which is held annually for football games and has expanded to basketball games for the second time.
“We decided on Arkansas because it gives the students a unique opportunity to go to the actual campus, which most people don’t get to do,” said Brandon Briggs, SG director of athletics. “If they go to the football game, it’s in Little Rock.”
It hasn’t been easy convincing students to sign up for the basketball trip, particularly because of the team’s record. The Tigers went 11-20 last season and currently have a 10-14 record.
The team has been riding a six-game losing streak and has seen home attendance dwindle by an average of almost 1,900 fans this season compared to last year.
LSU’s stigma of being a “football school” hasn’t helped bus trip ticket sales, which Briggs said haven’t gone as well as he hoped.
“The team is struggling,” Briggs said. “I think it just coincides.”
LSU had no problem selling its allotment of tickets for the football trip to Atlanta in September but has had trouble moving the basketball tickets.
For the LSU-North Carolina football game (a distance of 545 miles), 250 students grabbed up the bus trip tickets, buying them all in under eight hours. In comparison, SG had to downsize from two buses to one for the basketball trip.
Despite the cost being $30, there wasn’t enough fan interest for two buses, Briggs said.
“The cost of the basketball trip doesn’t come anywhere near what we pay,” Briggs said. “We just want to support the basketball team. We try to keep the prices low to encourage students to come.”
Student reactions were mixed about the bus trip, which Brittany St. Pierre, history senior, attributed to the team’s record.
“You’ve got to win for people to like you here. That’s just the general rule,” St. Pierre said. “If you’re not winning, nobody is going. Everybody jumps on the bandwagon when you are winning.”
Ben Treuting, sociology senior, said students have lost interest in the basketball team after two losing seasons.
“It’s not only that they aren’t winning this year — they didn’t win much last year,” Treuting said.
 
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]