Arizona game -- what are the benefits?

I was rattling off the LSU schedule to a friend of mine the other day, and he stumped me on our game with Arizona. He said, "Arizona? Why Arizona? What does LSU get out of playing Arizona? LSU doesn't recruit in Arizona, and they are not a perennial top team, so why schedule a home-and-home with Arizona?"

My only answers were that they have had pretty good teams in the past, that they are in a major conference and that our athletic department has a relationship with theirs through our basketball history. Other than that, I was at a loss to explain valid reasons for playing Arizona. Can anyone help me out?

 

because id rather be playing arizona than western carolina. maybe they were the biggest name we could schedule a home and home with?

also...this could open some doors for recruiting arizona players and the west coast in general.

 

I would say just because we don't really have much of a Pac-10 relationship. This gives us somewhat of a relationship without having to play someone like USC(although I wouldn't mind a matchup against a top Pac-10 team)

 

It gives the westcoast a chance to see the tigers in the pac-10 game highlights on local channels maybe? I dunno.....

 

It gives LSU more national exposure. Which is a good thing. It should also help to open some doors for recruiting.

 

It's a nationally televised game early in the season. I think I'm probably like most college football fans in that I'll watch just about any game during the first few weeks in the season. Also, the late kickoff probably means there won't be much competition for viewers. The fact that Arizona should be down this year makes it a perfect early season game, IMO.

 

Although the responses raise valid points such as national exposure early in the season, it seems to me that playing many other schools would accomplish the same goals, only to a greater extent. The following is a partial list of schools that I believe would result in greater benefits to LSU (recruiting, exposure in other areas of the country ripe for recruiting, etc.) while not significantly increasing the competition (in other words, this list will not include Miami, FSU, etc.):

Texas A&M
UNC
Virginia
Syracuse
Michigan St.
Oklahoma St.
Stanford
Iowa
Colorado

and, of course,

Northwestern

I still don't see the benefits of playing Arizona over some of these other schools.

 

I wouldn't disagree that there are others schools that LSU could play which would be more beneficial. However, its possible that the list of availbable schools to play at that time was thin and Arizona was the best of the bunch.

Regardless of whether or not playing someone else is more benefical, I still think it will be a good experience for all involved. From the national exposure, recruiting, and all the way down to the players and coaches themselves. It will be a good learning experience for them if anything.

 

Seems to me that Az is in the same class as those schools, except that Arizona is a lot worse on the field than most of them. some of those teams on your list are pretty good, as a matter of fact - Az is really bad.

 

I think you should be questioning the benefits of playing Western Illinois,ULM and to a lesser extent,LA Tech than Arizona.Yeah,I'm aware of Marshall backing out at the last second,but Western Illinois and ULM????!!!!Give me an f'ing break!!!Besides,I thought we were playing San Jose State(at least they're more highly regarded than WIU and ULM) to take Marshall's place.I'd much rather see LSU play Tulane and/or Rice than those two schools.