re: I should know this but why do we not wear purple (Home) jerseys more often for home games

The tradition originated when LSU won its first national championship in 1958. Head coach Paul Dietzel had a habit of tinkering with the uniform every year. In 1958, he chose to wear white jerseys for LSU's home games, and the Tigers subsequently won the national championship. A superstitious man, Dietzel didn't change the uniform after that season.

The tradition continued of home white jerseys even after Paul Dietzel left. But in the 1980s, things started to change, according to the LSU football media guide.

When Jerry Stovall took over as head coach in 1980, he said the Tigers would occasionally wear purple jerseys so that home fans could see a different color. In 1982, the NCAA changed its jersey rule, requiring teams to wear dark-colored jerseys for home games. The Tigers wore purple jerseys for all home games from 1983 to 1994.

When Gerry DiNardo became LSU head football coach in 1995, he went to work to bring back the home white jerseys.

After petitioning the rules committee of the American Football Coaches Association, he personally met with each member of the NCAA Football Rules Committee. DiNardo's efforts were successful, and the Tigers were allowed to wear white jerseys again beginning in 1995. A stipulation of the new rule was that the visiting team would have to give the home team permission to wear the white jerseys. The first team to deny LSU's request was DiNardo's former team, Vanderbilt. Instead of going back to purple jerseys, the Tigers took the field in new gold jerseys.

The Southeastern Conference stepped in to prevent that from being a continual problem by adopting a rule that the home team had sole discretion in determining jersey color.

There was another change to the LSU football home jersey tradition when Nick Saban became the Tigers head coach in 2000.

Saban decided that LSU would wear purple jerseys for all non-SEC games, except the home opener. That tradition continues today.