Lane Kiffin suggests that LSU’s legal dispute with SEC influenced kickoff time of Alabama game
By Jacob Moss
Published:
Lane Kiffin and the No. 15 LSU Tigers are preparing for a pivotal showdown against the No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday in front of what is expected to be a capacity crowd at Death Valley.
Despite this being one of the biggest SEC matchups of the year, though, the folks at the top of the conference made the head-scratching decision on Monday to set the kickoff time for the 3:30 p.m. ET slot instead of the highly sought-after nighttime slot that a game of this magnitude would normally demand.
The decision didn’t sit well with many in Baton Rouge, and Kiffin appeared to share some of that frustration when peaking with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting that the scheduling decision could be connected to the contentious legal battle between LSU and the SEC earlier this year over player eligibility.
“If someone thinks the SEC wants us to win this year after what’s been going on, they must have just been on Mars the last four months,” Lane Kiffin said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “So I guess when I look at it that way, I’m not surprised.”
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This kind of pot-stirring is nothing new for Kiffin, but he does have a point about the advantage LSU gains from playing under the lights at Death Valley. Anyone familiar with college football knows there’s nothing quite like a night game in Baton Rouge, with Tigers currently holding a 117-16 home record since 2000 in games that were played after the sun went down.
That said, it’s hard to believe SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and conference leadership deliberately scheduled the LSU-Alabama showdown for the afternoon out of spite, but good luck convincing Kiffin of that.
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