Scott Woodward wants LSU to maintain strong football non-conference scheduling going forward

As the SEC debates a potential move to a nine-game conference schedule, athletics directors are grappling with what it will mean for the football non-conference scheduling going forward.

LSU athletics director Scott Woodward was clear about one thing when it comes to the Tigers: He still wants big games.

“At the end of the day I think my coach, coach (Brian) Kelly, our coach at LSU, really said it best, ‘Hey, look, I came in here to play the best and be with the best and I want to give the fans the best,'” Woodward said on the makeshift set of the Paul Finebaum Show in Destin. “I think it makes even more sense now that we’re expanding the playoffs to have tough, good games and you can lose two games and still make the playoffs.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that LSU will pack every single slot on the schedule with a marquee opponent, though. A lot of that is also dependent on whether the SEC actually moves to nine-conference games.

That isn’t clear yet.

What is is Woodward will have options when it comes to the football non-conference scheduling in the future, with more of it provided by the playoff expansion.

“The good news for us is we’ll continue to do that, but we won’t do it for an out-of-state small school,” Woodward said of football non-conference scheduling. “It’s one of those things where, hey, still we have to fill our non-conference schedule with three other games and one or two of them may be a Power 5 and one of them may be an in-state school.”

Woodward is convinced marquee non-conference games are still very important.

“There’s no question they are. What’s good about them is that I just think there might even be a three-loss team get in the playoffs,” Woodward said. “You could make a case for it, but definitely a two-loss team with it going to 12. I just think there’s better and more opportunity and there’s not like this cause where if you lose a game you’re out. You can lose a game or two and then still be very competitive and good at the end and get in the playoffs.”

That’s also one of the major reasons Woodward is a proponent of a nine-game conference schedule, regardless of what happens with football non-conference scheduling.

The Tigers are one of the programs in favor of nine games.

“I can’t speak for the people that are just dead set for the eight,” Woodward said. “I don’t think it’s as many as people think, but they have points that, ‘Hey, it’s tough to get bowl-eligible. It’s tough to compete in our league, which is a meat-grinder,’ and I get all that. I understand it.”