Clemson vs. LSU: A Record-Breaking Media Game at LSU
LSU's season opener vs. Clemson at the historic 102-year-old Tiger Stadium is set to be its most star-studded event yet. Matt Perrault gives his betting pick.
Video Transcript
Let's start with Clemson and LSU, and the overall excitement for what this game is going to look like, 'cause it's gonna be wild.
Marty Smith of ESPN saying LSU officials confirmed to ESPN that Saturday's season opening home game against Clemson is the most media celebrity credentialed game in Tiger Stadium history.
Lane Kiffin's debut will be a wild scene in Death Valley.
2026 marks LSU's 102nd season in Tiger Stadium.
So over 100 years worth of football at Tiger Stadium, Death Valley, this will be the most credentialed media and celebrity credentialed game in Tiger history.
Everybody wants to be seen.
Everybody wants to get their picture with Lane Kiffin on the sidelines, right?
NIL world, here we come, with celebrities and endorsements and products and everything that's gonna be part of this game when Dabo Swinney takes his Clemson Tigers to go play in their version of Death Valley.
It's really funny, two Death Valleys, they both play, and they're playing each other.
It's LSU's Death Valley against Clemson's Death Valley.
It's LSU's Tigers against Clemson's Tigers.
But the similarities kind of end there when it comes to what these two teams are looking like because this is a game in which most people believe that Lane Kiffin's got a national championship caliber team.
Clemson is not being talked about in the same way.
These two teams met last year in the, in the, in the season opener.
LSU went on to a 17-10 victory by shutting out Clemson in the second half, and that was kind of it.
Both teams went seven and six.
Dabo and Clemson trying to prove that the non-NIL recruiting high schoolers is still a way of developing a program and building a program and winning a national championship.
But Lane Kiffin trying to come from over from Ole Miss and bringing in a ton of transfers and a ton of NIL money to spend to boot, including players that may or may not get LSU kicked out of the SEC, like we talked about yesterday.
The game itself, I, I mean, LSU has to destroy Clemson to liv- live up to the hype.
But if they do, I think there's going to be a lot even more buzz around LSU and the, their potential to win the national championship.
The problem, I think, for a lot of folks who are gonna back LSU is that Clemson is the professional side at the moment.
This number has been ticking down all summer.
We've seen 11 and a half, 11, 10 and a half, 10.
The pro money just keeps on trickling in on Clemson, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that Clemson is being overlooked, that Dabo is being doubted, that nobody thinks that Dabo Swinney's team is gonna be able to hang with LSU.
But there's so many new players on that roster for LSU.
I mean, this is not an established program that Lane Kiffin's got, you know, a machine rolling through.
So I would be careful laying 10 points.
I, I, I don't, I don't think I've got any real I don't think I've got any real issue at the moment, any real interest, I should say, with laying 10 points with LSU, even at home, even at night against Clemson.
It, it That feels like a touchdown game one way or the other.
And i- if Clemson beats LSU, am I gonna be stunned?
No.
I'm not gonna be stunned if Clemson beats LSU.
LSU's got so much hype, it's just everyone running to the window.
It's all groupthink.
The public is all over LSU, but the professionals are seeing something here, and they are slowly ticking this number down
