BATON ROUGE - LSU, North Texas, Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe officials are close to an agreement on a new date for the postponed LSU-North Texas game from Sept. 3 that will change two other games.
But it was not done yet as of Saturday night.
LSU wants to host North Texas on Oct. 29, which is an open date for the Tigers but no one else. North Texas is currently scheduled to host ULM on Oct. 29, but the idea is to move that game to Nov. 19. Only ULM and UL are currently scheduled to play on Nov. 19 in Monroe, but those two schools have been asked to move that game to Nov. 26. ULM and UL do not have games scheduled on Nov. 26.
"We thought we had it finished, but we're still waiting on final approval," LSU Assistant Athletic Director Herb Vincent said Saturday.
LSU had to change the Sept. 3 game because the state emergency officials late Monday night designated the LSU campus as the chief relief center for victims of Hurricane Katrina, which roared through New Orleans on Monday. LSU's Carl Maddox Field House has been turned into a shelter, and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center has become a field hospital with a triage unit and temporary morgue. On Saturday, the football team's indoor facility also became a shelter.
LSU is now planning on opening the season on Saturday, Sept. 10, against No. 18 Arizona State at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN.
"The schedule changes are not finalized, but I think they're very close," UL interim Athletic Director David Walker said Saturday from the UL-Texas game in Austin, Texas. "More than likely, it's going to happen with our game with ULM being moved."
The move will cost UL, though. School will be out during the days leading up to Nov. 26 with Thanksgiving two days before the proposed new date for UL and ULM.
"We'll have to incur considerable costs to hold a game during an off week - per diems, staff, the cafeteria," said Walker, who did not have an estimate of the cost yet.
North Texas and LSU may help offset some of the costs these changes will bring for ULM and UL.
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Glenn Guilbeau
La. Gannett News Service