LSU football schedules

TV plays a big role and so does just sheer money.

LSU plays McNeese because they get an easy win and allows them to improve their team. In return the school gives McNeese a nice big paycheck and their players get the chance to be on TV and play in Tiger Stadium.

TV makes a big impact because of just sheer money. That's the main reason A&M and Mizzou joined the conference. TV network. That's why they try to get some key match ups for television purposes. I guarantee you the longer they make the season with playoff games, the coaches have no desire to have their team play high profile games. Why take the risk? But no one wants to watch LSU v UT Martin. Which is why everyone leaves the games early.

Also, the more.. Prolific teams get more favorable schedules. LSU gets a nice bye week right before Alabama. Some teams get bye weeks before cupcake teams and end up playing 3 road games in a row vs conference opponents. Go look at Ole Miss's schedule. Tough. Much tougher than ours.

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Which is why everyone leaves the games early.

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Not everybody. But that is a discussion for another day.

LSU schedules revolve around SEC scheduling. Those games come first in the process. After that LSU has to fill the remaining dates. Big name teams want a home & home situation which is only fair in theory. The trouble with that is that LSU and everybody else wants as many home games as possible because of finances.

That limits the scheduling choices. LSU, and practically every other big time school, has to rely on lower level teams to fill out the home schedule because these teams are happy to get the payday that playing at a major conference venue provides. So you get these "cupcake" games. Anybody that believes that a Power Conference team will come to LSU for the appearance fee that a lower conference team gets is foolish.

With the new play off system more and more emphasis will be placed on strength of schedule. That is going to put college schedulers in a bind. They need to fill the seats, but they can't just use rent-a-wins.

How this plays out for everyone will be interesting. But the use of "cup cake" opponents isn't likely to go away any day soon.

As far as those LSU "fans" who believe that their time is too valuable to spend a few hours in Tiger Stadium cheering for LSU are concerned, get over yourself.