In my time (03-08) they used to basically quarantine students on McKinley Street or Gen Mouton.  
Every night there were cops posted at the beginning of the street, and then again at the Jefferson intersection.  As long as you weren't a complete idiot they would leave you alone.  Students had strength in numbers -- there was no way the cops could arrest 3000 people every night, they were just there to monitor for extreme situations.
Then MADD and some other groups paired up with local news and started running a bunch of campaigns about underage drinking and accusing the university for 'promoting it'.  Bars started getting raided every other week.  People (especially underclassmen girls) stopped showing up, and the un-arrestable mob turned into a few hundred people waiting to get put in the back of a squad car.  
I've asked some friends' kids about UL's party/bar scene and they laughed me out the room.  Basically just a bunch of 18-20 year olds getting high on vape pens at home and watching Netflix.  The few who do want to tailgate for college football they drive to BR.  
Thats why when people say "we need to get the students back to the games", I always wonder how many students are actually available to try and market to.  I don't think we have a very large number of your stereotypical student sports fans.
They said they wanted to curb underage student drinking and, by proxy, overall student partying..  Well, they succeeded, and there's no place where thats more evident than at football tailgates and games.  UL was known as a party school for decades, and we would have friends visit from Alexandria, Ruston, Monroe, etc and more than a few transfered her after experiencing the party.  
Now there is no party.  They have no identity.  They managed to get themselves downgraded into the list of boring directional schools that aren't LSU.  In the eyes of perspective freshman, UL is now LA Tech South.