LSU athletic director Scott Woodward stood in a room under Tiger Stadium’s north end zone, watching Oklahoma State mount a second-half comeback against rival Oklahoma just minutes after his own Tigers upset Texas A&M in their regular-season finale.
He wasn’t alone. Football staff members filtered in and out of the room, everyone glued to the television for very different reasons. Most of them had a vested interest in the game’s outcome. If the Cowboys beat the Sooners, they thought, it might open the door for Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley to replace Ed Orgeron at the helm.
Woodward didn’t hold such a view.