LSU AD Scott Woodward on if Football Could Reopen Series With Tulane, Square Off Against Michigan One Day

LSU has made it a priority to schedule tough non-conference games with other brand name programs over the past several years, a tradition that athletic director Scott Woodward intends to keep.

In 2018, it was Miami, in 2019 the Tigers went to Austin and beat Texas 45-38 in what was viewed as the start of a national championship run. LSU will host Texas in 2020 and has future series scheduled with UCLA, Florida State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Arizona State and Utah.

But there's one program the Tigers have never played and Woodward said it's a future matchup he'd love to see. In the long, storied histories of LSU and Michigan, the two blue blood programs have never squared off in the regular season or in a bowl game.

"We've had conversations and we're just hoping one day we can get something done," Woodward said in a "virtual town hall" Thursday hosted by the Advocate.

It's an interesting series to think about. Michigan, who hasn't won a national championship since 1997, has won the most games in college football history with 962. In addition, its current athletic director, Warde Manuel, is a New Orleans native.

Another topic of conversation about future matchups was LSU's willingness to revamp its series with Tulane in the future. Woodward said the Tigers would certainly be open to discussing a future game against the Green Wave but also said Tulane is looking for a home-and-home series, which doesn't make much sense from LSU's perspective.

"Playing one-offs we're all ears too," Woodward said. "I think here again, in this new normal it's going to make sense to start doing these things and playing closer to home. So we're all ears to opening it up and hopefully we'll get some things done, but it has to make sense for LSU."

LSU hasn't taken on Tulane since 2009, a 42-0 win for the Tigers in the Superdome. The Tigers and Green Wave played annually in the Dome and in Baton Rouge from 2006-09 before ultimately deciding to break free from the contract that was supposed to last through 2015.

While a future LSU-Tulane game has yet to be hashed out, Woodward did say that the Tigers want to be "good in-state partners" and continue to play Louisiana schools. Last week, LSU announced that Southern would be playing in Tiger Stadium in 2022 with Grambling to follow in 2023.

With scheduling those two games, LSU will have played every in-state school, something Woodward and the administration are very proud of.

"We are one state and we are one people and we need to help as much as we can," Woodward said. "It does help their budgets big time and it helps us with getting fans into the stadium from our in-state institutions. These are great fan bases coming here and sharing with us their traditions. Hopefully we'll have some joint tailgating and some real fun stuff.

"I tell our band that you better step it up because Human Jukebox can rock it. I'm looking forward to doing that and it's just one of these things where it's a win for everyone and couldn't be more happy about it."