Who knows how long Les Miles will be around to coach LSU, but if he stays in Baton Rouge, he has a pretty good idea about the schedule he'll face in the coming seasons.
The Tigers' sports information office was quite busy on Thursday, as the school announced a future home-and-home series with fellow powerhouse Texas and finalized a matchup in the Cowboys Classic with Miami.
"These are three very attractive games against two of the traditional powers in college football," LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said in a release. "These are the types of games that our fans want to see and they will be a huge benefit to our football program and our university.
"The Cowboys Classic is a great event and gives us an opportunity to showcase LSU football in the premier NFL venue in an area that is one of our biggest alumni bases outside Louisiana."
Miami will join LSU in Dallas to open the 2018 season on September 1st in the first matchup between the two programs since the 2005 Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Texas will play LSU for the first time during the regular season since 1954 when the two meet in Austin on September 7, 2019. The two will play again the following season in Baton Rouge on September 12, 2020.
"This is going to be a great two-game series for both programs," Alleva added. "The national attention and the excitement that will come with a game of this magnitude that early in the season will be unmatched. We look forward to renewing a long-standing rivalry with Texas."
As evidenced by the moves made on Thursday, LSU will remain aggressive when it comes to its non-conference schedules in the playoff era in college football. The football program already has games set with Syracuse, Wisconsin, UCLA and Arizona State in the coming decade, as well.
Yes, it's hard to get excited about games that are years away, but kudos to two traditional powers for playing a pair of potentially exciting games on campus. They're certainly giving everybody plenty of time to get excited for the matchups.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.