DESTIN, FLA. — Bring your sunscreen to Tiger Stadium and don’t forget to hydrate: LSU’s Sept. 19 home game against Auburn will be played in the midday sun.
CBS announced a partial schedule of Southeastern Conference games Thursday, selecting the battle of SEC Western Division Tigers for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
It will be LSU’s first daytime home game since a 31-27 win over Arkansas to close out the 2013 home schedule on Nov. 29.
All 12 of LSU’s regular-season games were played at night in 2014 — a first in school history.
CBS also announced that it will show Missouri at Arkansas on Nov. 27, the Friday after Thanksgiving. That makes it a near certainty that LSU’s regular-season finale against Texas A&M will be played on Nov. 28.
LSU Athletic director Joe Alleva said the SEC’s TV partners lobbied the school to move the A&M game to Thanksgiving Day. But Alleva has been adamant in saying LSU will not play a home Thursday game.
Doubleheader dates set
CBS also announced its doubleheader dates: 2:30 and 7 p.m. on Nov. 7, noon and 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 14.
The former falls on the date of LSU’s game at Alabama. The latter falls on the date of the Tigers’ home game against Arkansas.
CBS has picked the LSU-Alabama game for its prime time slot the past four years.
Here’s the full list of TV announcements from CBS (all games 2:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted):
Sept. 5: Louisville at Auburn
Sept. 12: Georgia at Vanderbilt
Sept. 19: Auburn at LSU
Oct. 31: Florida vs. Georgia (at Jacksonville, Florida)
Nov. 7: SEC doubleheader, 2:30 and 7 p.m.
Nov. 14: SEC doubleheader, noon and 2:30 p.m.
Nov. 27: Missouri at Arkansas, 1:30 p.m.
Dec. 5: SEC Championship Game, 3 p.m.
Eighth football official added
After experimenting with an eight-man football officiating crew last year, the SEC will add an eighth official to all of its crews for 2015.
The new position is referred to as a center judge and will be positioned opposite the referee in the offensive backfield.
“It gives us a view the referee and umpire don’t see,” said Steve Shaw, coordinator of football officials.
Other new rules and points of emphasis for 2015:
Illegal equipment: overbuilt face masks are outlawed. Players not wearing equipment properly will be forced to leave for at least one play.
If the 40-second clock runs below 25 seconds before the ball is ready to be snapped, the referee can signal for the play clock to be reset to 25.
Pushing or pulling a player off a pile is now an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Instant replay will be used to determine if a player on the receiving team on an onside kick is illegally blocked.
In the wake of “DeflateGate,” officials will have a heightened awareness to maintain ball integrity. As in the NFL, college footballs must be inflated between 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch.
In a related note, Shaw said got letter from LSU receiver Trey Quinn’s parents, thanking SEC officials for calling targeting when Auburn cornerback Nick Ruffin put a shoulder into Quinn and was ejected for hard contact despite a lack of helmet-to-helmet contact.
“These are student-athletes we are trying to protect,” Shaw said. “The intent of the rule is to get hard head hits out of the game.”
New hoops schedule format
The SEC announced a new men’s basketball scheduling format featuring three permanent opponents starting with the 2015-16 season.
LSU’s permanent opponents will be Texas A&M, Alabama and Arkansas, omitting Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
The Tigers will play those three teams home and home, as well as home and home games against two other rotating opponents to be determined, and one game against the remaining eight SEC teams.
Conference schedules were not announced.
Advocate sportswriter Ross Dellenger contributed to this report.
Via– Scott Rabalais, the advocate