South Carolina is traveling to Baton Rouge, La. for a “home game” against LSU but many of the Tigers’ traditions will stay the same. They’ll dress in their own locker room, but will have to wear uncustomary purple jerseys while at home, and stand on their own sideline. The Gamecocks, however, will enjoy some things that will make them feel like they’re at home.

The LSU band will play the South Carolina fight song and alma mater during pregame, but the Gamecocks will not get to enjoy their “2001” entrance, according to LSU athletics director Joe Alleva on ESPN104.5 in Baton Rouge.

Should the Gamecocks happen to score, there will be a familiar refrain heard across the loudspeakers.

“I hope we don’t have to play it too often but if South Carolina scores, we’re going to play their fight song,” Alleva said. “We’re going to play some of their introductory music like they would play if their game was at home. We’re going to get Sandstorm; we’re going to play that for them.”

LSU will only dress 70 players like it would for a typical road game. Their band will play its typical pregame show.

Alleva noted that the game will be on one of the ESPN channels, but wasn’t sure which station it would be on at this point. The LSU athletics director said that he “fought really hard” to have the game pushed back from the 11 a.m. Central time planned start as late as possible.

He credited SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for making that happen. Alleva noted that it took “a lot of negotiation” between the SEC and CBS to allow the game to be played at 2:30 p.m. Central time, which coincides with the CBS game of the week.

Alleva said that Tanner, who he called a “buddy,” reached out for the first time on Monday to see if LSU would be able to hold the game if South Carolina was unable to host the Tigers at Williams-Brice Stadium.

The decision was made at approximately 11 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

“He didn’t think that they weren’t going to be able to play the game, but they were planning for the future,” Alleva said of his Monday conversation with Tanner. “The first call we made was to the police. Without their support, we couldn’t pull the game off. We got their blessing and we continued to plan. I had the feeling that he wouldn’t have reached out unless he thought there was a strong possibility they couldn’t host the game.”

One of the biggest factors in moving the game to Baton Rouge, Alleva said, was that only one team would be affected by travel.

“The plane we were going to use to go to Columbia, South Carolina is using that plane to come here,” Alleva said. “Only one team is affected. If we went to a neutral site, both teams would have been affected.”

Alleva said that he believed that “plenty of good tickets will be available” for all fans. Plans initially have called for some of the upper deck sections to be closed.

Alleva was also able to give some insight into South Carolina’s ticket refunding policy.

“Our fans who bought tickets to South Carolina will be refunded,” Alleva said. “I understand Ray is going to refund. We’re following the same policy they’re doing. They’re going to refund their tickets to people who bought tickets, so we’ll do the same with ours.”

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