As an FBS Independent, the BYU Cougars have the luxury of scheduling 12 games against teams from all across the country. Their future schedules currently include top programs such as Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Stanford, Texas, USC, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
But the Cougars do not have a game on the books against a team from arguably the best conference in college football, the SEC. However, that may change soon according to BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall.
Speaking on his weekly show yesterday on KSL News Radio with Greg Wrubell and Marc Lyons, Mendenhall spoke about his future scheduling desires and hinted at a possible match-up with the LSU Tigers.
“I would still like to have a military academy each year. I’d love for our players to visit West Point (Army), I’d love for them to visit Annapolis (Navy), I’d love for them to experience that part of college football.
“I’d love to have a long-term agreement with Boston College. I think that would be a great game for us. And then there’s many others that will be announced later that I think the fans will really like. But there are some that make a lot of sense, and I would love to have games in each part of the country that have really natural and intriguing, kind of, similarities between programs.”
Greg Wrubell then asked Mendenhall “Maybe some Big Ten announcements in the future?”
“That would be my hope. I like that. Just after our game against Wisconsin and looking out, what Ohio State looks like, Northwestern, teams like that, that could be really fun.
“Nebraska is on the schedule in the future, Michigan is on the schedule in the future, LSU possibly on the schedule in the future. So yeah, we’re gonna travel as many places as we can to play the best teams we can.”
Mendenhall didn’t mention whether LSU would be a single game or part of a home-and-home or neutral site series.
Looking at each teams’ future schedules, 2015 would be the earliest they could play. BYU has two openings that season, as does LSU.
But LSU’s future schedules are currently in a state of flux. The Tigers have been shuffling around some non-conference opponents and have or are in the process of postponing series against Arizona State and Oklahoma.
In addition, the SEC has not decided whether to move to a nine-game conference schedule or stay at eight. A move to nine would reduce their non-conference games from four to three per season.
BYU and LSU have never met in football. If they do, it would certainly be one of their biggest scheduling coups since Texas.
UPDATE (3:20pm ET)
LSU Senior Associate Athletics Director Verge Ausberry told me via email that he “doesn’t know anything” about a future football game or games vs. LSU.
Football Schedules