Could LSU Be Selected For The 2024 Independence Bowl?
Today is Selection Sunday in college football. Teams will be learning their destinations for post-season play. Some will be heading to the College Football Playoff's new expanded field, while others will be playing in traditional bowl game matchups.
The LSU Tigers will have a post-season invite this year, they are bowl eligible. If you're not familiar with "bowl eligibility", it just means a team has to win 6 games on their schedule (in most cases, you can't beat high school teams and count them), and they can be selected by a bowl committee.
LSU is 8-4 this year, and while that is good enough to get a bowl bid, its likely not going to be good enough for the College Football Playoffs.
That leaves LSU open for a traditional bowl game. Which starts to generate a lot of attention in Shreveport...because its home to the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. A game the LSU program is familiar with.
Many fans can still recall LSU's two trips to the Independence Bowl, which were both victories. They beat Michigan State 45-26, and Notre Dame 27-9. But there's an entire generation of football fans who only know about these LSU wins through highlights and history. Because the last time LSU played in the Independence Bowl was 1997.
LSU made their way to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl through the game's agreement with the SEC...the conference LSU calls home. The game and SEC had a deal from 1995-2009, and then again from 2012-2019. But they currently do not have an agreement.
Which means there's virtually zero chance an SEC team will be invited to the Independence Bowl, even LSU.
Right now, the SEC is tied to the Citrus Bowl, Liberty Bow, Las Vegas Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl, Texas Bowl, Gator Bowl, and Music City Bowl. They are also backups for the Birmingham Bowl and Gasparilla Bowl. Not including College Football Playoff spots, that's 9 bowl games the SEC is already set for.
While the SEC has over a dozen teams who are bowl eligible, at least two of them will be in the College Football Playoffs. Possibly as many as 4 will get in. This means they will barely fill what they already have, and couldn't even provide a random "at large" team for a bowl who may have an empty spot. Which means for 2024, there's a 99.99999999999999999999999% chance that LSU couldn't even be an option for the Independence Bowl.
So unless the Supreme Court steps in with some wild decision today, its impossible for LSU to play in the 2024 Independence Bowl.