BATON ROUGE — LSU will not change its football game pregame show to accommodate a request by Gov. Jeff Landry to have the players on the field for The Star Spangled Banner.

Landry last spring suggested that university pull scholarships from athletes who aren't present. LSU football players haven't been on the field for the national anthem in decades, and last year, even the Army team was in its locker room while the LSU band held the field for pregame ceremonies.

“There will not be any changes to our pre-game football processes this season,” LSU athletics spokesman Zach Greenwell told the Louisiana Illuminator. 

Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly declined comment.

The matter arose after the LSU women's basketball team was not on the court for an NCAA tournament game against Iowa five months ago. The Hawkeyes were present. Video that showed Iowa’s team on the court but not LSU went viral on social media, mostly fueled by conservative accounts.

Landry took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“It is time that all college boards, including Regent [sic], put a policy in place that student athletes be present for the national anthem or risk their athletic scholarship! This is a matter of respect that all collegiate coaches should instill,” Landry posted.

LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward said at the time that the school routinely reviews its "processes" and would again. 

The Tigers' pregame routine today is largely the same as it was in the 1960s and 1970s. Fifteen minutes before kick-off, LSU’s “Golden Band from Tigerland” lines up in the stadium’s south end zone. The band takes to the field to perform “Tiger Rag,” an old jazz standard adopted by the university, before playing the alma mater and finally, the national anthem.

Landry made the request to all four of Louisiana’s higher education systems in April after the LSU Landry’s request raised eyebrows among LSU football and basketball fans, as the teams have always remained in their locker rooms during the anthem. Landry’s suggested policy would strip more than a hundred student-athletes of their scholarships.

At the time, LSU released a statement from Athletic Director Scott Woodward that said “we consistently look at our processes and will do so again,” sparking fears the football team would alter its pregame routine that has remained largely unchanged for decades.

Landry is not the first Louisiana conservative to take an interest in athletes’ anthem habits. A similar situation occurred in 2017 when unnamed state legislators threatened LSU’s funding if players kneeled during the national anthem. Kneeling during the anthem at athletics events spurred a heated political debate after NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick did so in 2016 in protest of police brutality against Black people.

The threat was withdrawn after then-LSU President F. King Alexander reminded lawmakers the football team remained in the locker room during the anthem, The Advocate reported.

Similar protests have largely been absent from major college athletics programs. Many college athletics programs keep their athletes off the field or court during the anthem.

LSU’s football season kicks off Sunday with a game between the Tigers and the USC Trojans in Las Vegas.