Bama-LSU’s even better on SATURDAY NIGHT IN DEATH VALLEY

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The game’s recent night time slot has given it extra juice, especially when LSU’s the home team.

Alabama and LSU are playing football on a Saturday nightfor the eighth year in a row, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday. The rivalry that so regularly reshapes title races wasn’t supposed to be quite as big in 2018, when many projections were that LSU would have a down year. But the Tigers have just one loss, so this game is the blockbuster it’s always been meant to be.

The nighttime kickoffs started as an annual thing in 2011, after some 3:30 p.m. ET kicks in the preceding years. It’s not a coincidence that these always happen under the lights now. And it’s not just that they’re really big games that might fit in primetime anyway.

LSU’s carved out a niche as the place for big nighttime games.

There are huge night games all over the place, and schools like Michigan, Penn State, and Notre Dame have hosted them repeatedly. But no fanbase or administration makes a bigger deal of having night games than LSU’s do. The Tigers crave night games, whether they’re playing Alabama or some FCS team. So far this year, they’ve played at 7 ET against Southeastern Louisiana and Louisiana Tech and 9:15 ET against Ole Miss. The only afternoon home game they’ve played was against Georgia, and that was just so CBS could air it.

There’s no one clear reason it started. As LSU put it in 2006, when it was celebrating the 75th anniversary of a night game tradition that started in 1931:

The tradition of playing night games in Tiger Stadium began on Oct. 3, 1931, when LSU downed Spring Hill, 35-0, under the lights. The idea of night football was introduced by T.P. “Skipper” Heard, then graduate manager of athletics and later athletics director. Several reasons were cited for playing LSU games at night, including avoiding the heat and humidity of afternoon games, avoiding scheduling conflicts with Tulane and Loyola and giving more fans the opportunity to see the Tigers play. An immediate increase in attendance was noted, and night football soon became ingrained in LSU football lore.

LSU itself describes night games as “part of the lore of Tiger Stadium.” The school says its night game record at home is 86-11 (.887) since 2000. Historically, the program’s winning percentage in home night games is way higher than during the day.

When LSU’s playing at night — especially against Bama — it’s a scene.

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“When they announce that it’s Saturday night in Death Valley, when the band plays, when that crowd stands and cheers for the Tigers, there is no place like it in America,” Les Miles once said. Former Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace noticed a shift when night fell at the stadium:

“I think atmosphere-wise, LSU was the best atmosphere that we played in [2012]. I loved playing in that game. It was probably the most fun that I’ve had playing even though we lost, just because of that atmosphere. It wasn’t as loud during the day, but as soon as night struck, it was crazy.”

Fox Sports wrote in 2014:

“The entire culture is built around Saturday nights at Death Valley,” said Dan Borne’, the man who has served as the school’s public address announcer since 1986. “(It’s) not Saturday morning in Death Valley. Not Saturday afternoon in Death Valley. It’s Saturday night in Death Valley. There’s no place they (the fans) would rather be, and no time they’d rather be there.”

At LSU, it isn’t expected that home games be played at night. It’s understood.

The evolution of college football and TV coverage has put LSU’s administration in a tough spot. How do you appease both a rabid fan base and the TV networks that pay billions of dollars to broadcast NCAA games?

You don’t. And you better believe that the power brokers hear about it.

“There is not a fan base that resents moving a game from its time slot (more) than the LSU fan,” [Tim] Brando said. “Television programmers have been hearing it for years.”

When LSU fans didn’t get a night game in 2011, they were displeased. Our great LSU blog, And The Valley Shook, went back through decades of schedules to reach a thudding reality:

And has since been deeply invested in getting night games over the years:

CBS’ contract with the SEC has helped set Death Valley at night apart nationally, even as it’s cost fans some craved night games.

The network’s contract with the SEC calls for one doubleheader a year, where there’s a typical 3:30 p.m. ET game and then a high-profile nightcap. That’s where this game always slots. Bama-LSU is at night and it’s on CBS. And while it’s a huge deal when it’s in Tuscaloosa, it’s even more of an event in Baton Rouge, because a) the Tigers have this special affinity for night games and b) they are normally the underdogs.

This game’s special. But making it SATURDAY NIGHT IN DEATH VALLEY adds a lot to it.