Historic Lambeau Field will make history again on Sept. 3, when the Wisconsin Badgers meet the LSU Tigers for the stadium’s first big-time college football game. Officially dubbed the “Carmex Lambeau Field College Classic” — yes, the maker of lip balm — this matchup has been the talk of the college football universe for weeks.
ESPN College GameDay Built by The Home Depot (naming rights in college sports are getting seriously out of hand) will be in Green Bay, broadcasting live from a set in front of the Brown County Arena on Oneida Street. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on ABC.
Additionally, SportingNews.com named Lambeau the second-best neutral site for a college football game this season, behind only Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, host of Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee on Sept. 10.
The UW-LSU matchup continues the neutral-site rivalry the teams began in 2014 at Houston’s NRG Stadium. You may recall the bitter taste that game left in the collective mouth of Badger Nation, as second-year head coach Gary Anderson’s team let a 17-point lead slip away, losing 28-24 as a quarterback controversy brewed.
Two years on, second-year head coach Paul Chryst is expected to start fifth-year senior quarterback Bart Houston against fifth-ranked and heavily favored LSU. It will be the California native’s first-ever start for the Badgers; Houston backed up Joel Stave last season and has more experience than redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook.
Going with a little-tested quarterback won’t be UW’s only challenge against LSU. Dan Voltz, a fifth-year senior and the Badgers’ starting center for the past three seasons , retired from football on Aug. 23, citing both his physical health and other issues. Voltz tore the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral meniscus in his right knee against Illinois last November and never played another down. He was expected to shift to left guard this season to make way for redshirt sophomore Michael Deiter at center.
Then there will be the presence of former Badgers defensive coordinator Dave Aranda on the LSU sidelines. Aranda was the man behind the curtain for Wisconsin’s top-scoring defense last season. Tigers coach Les Mills made him a $1.3 million offer following UW’s 2015 Holiday Bowl victory — double what Aranda earned at Wisconsin — and he just couldn’t refuse.
Amid all this buzz, it’s worth remembering that Lambeau Field hosted the Vince Lombardi Memorial Classic in 1982 and 1983, a fundraiser to help fight cancer. St. Norbert College beat New York City’s Fordham University (Lombardi’s alma mater) both times. The Green Knights also defeated Mankato State at Lambeau in 1960.
Green Bay Packers CEO/president Mark Murphy told reporters earlier this summer that he’d love for Lambeau Field to host a major college football game every year — maybe even the Big Ten Championship (played in Indianapolis since its 2011 inception) or a bowl game (only a few are held in cold-weather cities). “We’d like to do it on a fairly regular basis,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal. “Lambeau Field was built for football.”
