re: So LSU is afraid to play at Camp Randall Stadium?

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Not only is the university second behind Texas in athletic revenue

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I didn't believe this so I looked it up.

You're right Wisconsin was #2 in revenue for 2012-13. However, it was an abnormality. Wisconsin for some reason received an extraordinarily high amount of donations that one year (59 million of it's 149 million revenue) which accounted for over 1/3 of it's revenue for that year. Wisconsin is the only team in the top 10 who's donations make up the majority of it's revenue.

That abnormality says to me that some wealthy donors made a one time contribution to build something new with their name on it. Maybe that new Student Athletic Performance Center which used 37 million in donations? The year before Wisconsin only brought in 103 million in revenue and was #12.

Also Wisconsin was #2 in expenses. It made only 2.3 million in profit and wasn't in the top 10.

The top 10 in profit was

Ohio State - 24 million
Alabama - 21.37 million
Oklahoma - 21.36 million
Texas - 18.9 million
Florida - 18.6 million
Oregon - 18 million
Michigan - 12.2 million
LSU - 12.1 million
Kansas - 11 million
Kansas St - 9 million

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If I am correct, doesn't about 35 million a year of state tax payer money go to that BILLIONAIRE owner of the New Orleans Saints just to keep them in New Orleans?

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No truer words have been spoken. Nobody cares that Benson and Brees continue to get richer on the backs of honest tax paying citizens. Also how many People from Louisiana do the saints actually employ?

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Time for a little loyalty to be shown to the season ticket holders...a neutral site game every few years would be fine...but every year ?

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plus it hurts your bottom line

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IF, it's all about the $ why not "sell" some of our SEC home games to Atl.,Jerry World and Houston ????

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How would LSU make money by selling their home SEC games to a neutral site? The TV contract for that is already set up

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One of our largest and wealthiest fan bases is in Houston.

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Well there you go.

Except Ausberry says the subject of a home and home was never discussed.

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Ausberry says Wisconsin AD is full of shite

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OK...but aren't we told that we schedule these neutral site games because we have to? Because no one will play home and homes with us?

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"It was never home-and-home," Ausberry said. "We had a mission and that was to play in Houston. We were looking for an opponent and then Lambeau Field came up.

"We had done Atlanta and Dallas. One of our largest and wealthiest fan bases is in Houston."

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It appears that the issue has less to do with an inability to get a home and home scheduled and more to do with a desire to actually play at neutral sites...at least in this case, and that's regardless of what Alverez says after the fact.

Look...I'm a season ticket holder that lives in the Lafayette area. It's obviously in my best interest to have all possible LSU home games played AT Tiger Stadium. If it's in LSU's best interest to play one OOC game at a neutral site every year either for financial reasons (payout from network or to placate a large donor base) or for some perceived recruiting advantage, then fine. Make that case.

But...don't tell me as a season ticket holder that we HAVE TO play them and then run out the above as a balm to ease the pain of losing a home game. "Well...we really want to play home and homes with the big boys, but you know...they won;t come here. But look...we make a ton of money from these games AND we have a bunch of alumni there...and it's a recruiting hot bed, so...let's make the best of it?" Go with the real reason up front and let the chips fall where they may with your ticket holders.

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Except Ausberry says the subject of a home and home was never discussed.

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No, he does not say that in the article. He says it was never a home and home, and given that LSU's objective WAS a neutral site game then not even being interested in talking about a home and home, regardless of whether Alverez brought it up, makes sense.

But there's nothing in that article that says Verge never once heard Wisky talk about a desire for a home and home...just that it was never the objective.

This looks like a case of LSU WANTING a neutral site game, and when then found Wisjy willing to make the trip to Houston but were also willing to have LSU go back up and play at Camp Randall LSU said, nah... Not because of fear, but because LSU went into this wanting to play a game in Houston, and if the Houston trip was going to be neutral then you couldn't have the return trip be in Camp Randall, as that really would be a competitive disadvantage for LSU.

What I don't understand (and this assumes Alverez is on the level) is why LSU would not just tell Wisky, "Hey...we have a huge alumni base in Houston and we recruit a ton there. We want to play a game there, make sense?" Doesn't seem to be any reason to have it be a secret or something they were unwilling to tell Wisky.

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No, he does not say that in the article.

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LSU senior associate athletic director Verge Ausberry said Wednesday a home-and-home series was never part of the discussion with Wisconsin despite comments to the contrary by Badgers' athletic director Barry Alvarez.

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Madison is a great college town, but Lambeau is pretty cool also. It is basically a home field - not a neutral site. That is like calling the Superdome a neutral site.

I suppose it's open to interpretation but I have a hard time believing Ausberry would stonewall Alvarez if the topic of a home-and-home was brought up.

So either Alvarez is lying about a home-and-home being discussed, or about Ausberry giving no reason as to why LSU wouldn't even consider it.