LSU adding Tulane back to its football schedule is a big deal.

But what week the Tigers will play the Green Wave in 2030 is an even bigger deal.

The matchup is scheduled for Aug. 31 of that year, according to a Friday release from LSU, which means it could lead off the Tigers’ 2030 slate.

LSU is also adding an Aug. 28, 2027, opener with Northwestern State; an Aug. 26, 2028, opener with UL-Monroe; and a Sept. 9, 2028, contest with Southern.

Lane Kiffin has made it known he doesn’t love playing marquee opponents, such as a Clemson, in Week 1 of the regular season. College football programs don’t have preseason games to prepare, and starting the season with a loss to a difficult opponent can change the course of a season from both a momentum and perception standpoint.

In this playoff era, a bad start can be the difference between making or missing the College Footbal Playoff field, which was a point of discussion for Kiffin on the Pardon My Take podcast in May. He highlighted his 20-0 record in nonconference games during his six seasons at Ole Miss.

The Rebels made the CFP last season and went on a run to the semifinals after Kiffin left to take the LSU job.

“We didn’t play in any of them big openers,” Kiffin said. “This place (LSU) in a four-year span lost three of four openers. ‘Yeah, that’s so great (to play a big game),’ whatever. But you don’t get rewarded for it because it’s not worth it enough.”

LSU lost five straight openers from 2020-24, starting the skid with a home loss to Mississippi State and a road defeat at UCLA. Brian Kelly opened his tenure as head coach with consecutive Week 1 losses to Florida State in New Orleans and Orlando, Florida, respectively.

After an opening-game loss to Southern Cal in Las Vegas in 2024, Kelly finally won an opener at Clemson last season. Now LSU has to complete the home-and-home series against Clemson with a Sept. 5 contest in Baton Rouge, which will be Kiffin’s debut.

Kiffin doesn’t want to play a tough nonconference slate when he doesn’t feel other leagues are doing the same. He argues the Big Ten, home to the last three national champions, isn’t as deep as the SEC and those teams don’t have as many games to “get up for” on their schedule each year.

“That schedule, where half your games you don’t have to get up for, it’s a mental toll that you gotta play when you have to get up for (it),” Kiffin said on Pardon My Take.

Kiffin would much rather open with a school from a non-Power Four conference, and American Conference member Tulane fits the bill. Tulane also happens to be the team LSU played in its first football game ever in 1893, which Tulane won 34-0.

That’s not to say the Green Wave has become pushovers, because it made the playoff under now-Florida coach Jon Sumrall last season. But the last time LSU played Tulane was an Oct. 31, 2009, contest in Tiger Stadium, which the Tigers won 42-0.

LSU’s only other game against Southern came in 2022 for a 65-17 victory. LSU last faced Northwestern State in 2019 and prevailed 65-14.

UL-Monroe is a program LSU has faced four times. The Tigers have won all four games in the series, though its 2014 win was vacated because of a booster scandal. Officially, LSU is a combined 16-0 vs. Northwestern State, UL-Monroe and Southern.

LSU holds a combined record of 69-22-7 vs. Tulane, but the Tigers have won 18 straight and haven’t lost since 1982. Of Tulane’s 22 wins over LSU, 18 came prior to 1950.

LSU will open 2027 with Northwestern State, Houston and Texas-San Antonio before launching into a nine-game conference slate. The 2028 campaign will open with UL-Monroe, SMU and Southern.

In 2029, the Tigers are slated to make a return trip to SMU before hosting Rice and McNeese State in Tiger Stadium.

LSU currently has a home-and-home series scheduled with Utah in 2031-32, as well.