LSU Football Schedule: Tigers lock in future nonconference games

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LSU's 2026 football season is seven weeks away, but it's never too early to look into the future and on Friday LSU announced four future non-conference matchups in the years to come.

LSU confirmed four home games against in-state schools between 2027 and 2030. The Tigers will open 2027 on August 28 against Northwestern State; in 2028 LSU will open against ULM on August 26, and then host Southern on September 9; and on August 31, LSU will welcome Tulane to kickoff the 2030 season.

While LSU hosting Northwestern State or ULM isn't particularly interesting from an on the field perspective, the timing of those two games are noteworthy. LSU is jumping on the trend of playing a Week 0 game. In prior years, the only teams that could play on Week 0 were those playing an international game, or if Hawaii was on a team's schedule; otherwise, teams would need to get a waiver from the NCAA to play a Week 0 game. That will change in 2027 as the Week 0 weekend in August is the official start date for all college football teams.

LSU has tried to play Week 0 games before. Last season LSU tried to modify their schedule to where they played Grambling on Week 0 before heading to Clemson, but the request was denied by the NCAA. That won't be a problem anymore for LSU or any other team.

LSU playing a Week 0 game against teams of Northwestern State or ULM's caliber is also more in line with Lane Kiffin's scheduling belief. While the Tigers have typically played marquee Week 1 games over Labor Day weekend, Kiffin's Ole Miss teams didn't really test themselves right out of the gate. With the SEC now going to nine conference games and still mandating teams play a Power 4 team outside of the conference, more Week 0 tuneups are likely in store for LSU.

This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU Football Schedule: Tigers lock in future nonconference games

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