UPDATE: The university changed its mind and has cancelled classes on Monday and Tuesday in Baton Rouge.
Official: Classes are canceled Monday and Tuesday at LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge. The university will remain open. More details to come.
— LSU (@LSU) January 10, 2020
The LSU Tigers and Clemson Tigers square off next Monday, January 13th, in New Orleans for the national title. The College Football Playoff National Championship Game is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET, which is 7:00 p.m. in Louisiana. It also happens to be the first day of the spring semester.
The title game is taking place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which at its best is about an hour and a half drive from Baton Rouge, or a little over two hours if you take the bus. Numerous students will be making the trip to New Orleans, regardless of having tickets. However, the school announced this week that classes will not be cancelled that day or the next day.
The close nature of the game means realistically students could go to class in the morning or early afternoon and then hustle over to New Orleans. Realistically, anybody planning on making that trip is a near guarantee to be skipping out if they have a Monday class on their schedule. And I suspect anybody with an early Tuesday class is likely to skip as well.