Oregon until after Sept 3rd... We really don't have 1 rival unless you count Tulane, we have a bunch of rivalries.
Motha flopin Alabama ! Alabama sucks. Their coach is an earthworm. Their fans with their 97 national titles are arrogant pickle kissers. Every year it's a bar room brawl. Enough said.
LSU's traditional in-state rival is Tulane, with whom we played our first game in 1893. But after Tulane quit the SEC and their football fortunes declined (we won 25-straight years at one point), the rivalry declined and we now no longer even play Tulane on an annual basis. Our traditional conference rival had been Ole Miss, but they too have fallen on hard times since 1960's and the rivalry ain't what it was. But there is still a long tradition there. These days LSU football isn't about traditional rivalries, but about hot rivalries with our SEC competitors. LSU's hottest rival is whoever stands between it and a conference championship. In the 60's it was Ole Miss. In the 70's and 80's it was Alabama, in the 90's it was Florida, in the 2000's it was Auburn, and this decade it is looking like Bama is shaping up as the hot rivalry. It's a continuously evolving power struggle in the extremely competitive SEC.
This exactly. Ask 5 different people and you could get 5 different answers, but this is about as accurate as you can get. And no one has even mentioned Arkansas, who we play on rivalry weekend for a trophy.
The SEC has tried to make LSU/ARKANSAS into an Iron Bowl/Egg bowl-like SEC rivalry game, with the biggest trophy in rival land and a special-Friday-after-Thanksgiving prime TV spot. They wanted Arkansas to feel wanted in the SEC. But the rivalry just never caught on at LSU or Arkansas. Arkansas still feels like they are SWC stepchildren, which is likely true. And LSU has their hands full with Alabama, Florida, and Auburn every year which are usually bigger hurdles than Arkansas. Arkansas is our phony reality TV rival.
