South Carolina-LSU Shows SEC Rivals Can Be Friends, Too

Game Moved To Baton Rouge; Tiger Band To Learn Gamecocks Songs

Yes, the SEC is cutthroat competition when it comes to college football.

There’s bitter battles on the recruiting trail, some pretty harsh insults traded between fans on social media and at tailgate parties, and hard hitting on the field.

But there are times when everyone comes together, too, and that’s what has happened with the South Carolina-LSU game.

It has been moved from Columbia, S.C., where flooding has made everyday life a struggle, to LSU’s home stadium in Baton Rouge. That place is known as Death Valley, by the way.

LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva is sending money from ticket sales to South Carolina for flood relief. And the LSU band is even learning the South Carolina alma mater and fight song because the Gamecock pep band can’t make the trip.

Now true SEC fans won’t necessarily call LSU-South Carolina a rivalry game. After all, this isn’t Alabama (with former Tiger coach Nick Saban now wearing crimson) or Ole Miss, LSU’s two most heated rivals.

But any game involving Les Miles and Steve Superior carries a bit of an edge to it.

LSU is not expecting the usual rabid, crazy Cajun fans that make LSU such an intimidating place to play for opposing teams. Alleva even is planning on closing off two sections of the stadium because he’s expecting it to be far less than a sellout.

However, that could change and LSU fans – who know their team is in the College Football Playoff picture – could look at this is a gift home game. With the money going to help people in SEC territory.

There is, of course, no finer example in recent times of an SEC team and fans throwing a rivalry to the side in an emergency when Auburn helped clean up the devastating tornado in Tuscaloosa.