Baton Rouge Advice for Out-of-Towners

I've been reading these forums for a while but this'll be my first post here. Me and three buddies are heading down from Canada -- myself from northern, middle-of-nowhere Canada -- for the Texas A&M @ LSU game. We've also got tickets for the Saints @ Falcons game on Thursday so we'll be driving down from Atlanta to BR Friday morning and staying until Monday. I had a few questions regarding game-day and accommodations that I was wondering if anyone here might be able to help out with:
- Where is the best place to stay? I was looking at the hotels around Tiger Stadium and they all appear to be sold out so we were thinking maybe the Quality Inn across the river.
- I've never tailgated a game before and I looked into it a bit at LSU, but I'm assuming all we need to do is to show up at 8 AM Saturday in full gear to the parking lots?
- Lastly, any advice for post-game events or bars?

Thanks in advance for any help; we bought our tickets a few months back and have been foaming at the mouth to get down south and watch some quality football.

Cheers
Go Tigers