This is nothing new in the SEC, to include LSU. For the most part, SEC schools try to schedule one Power 5 team and then three OOC teams that usually have no shot at winning; in most cases it's an FCS school and two Group of 5 schools. Case in point this year:

Non-Power 5 OOC opponents
=========================
Alabama: Arkansas State, Louisiana, The Citadel
Auburn: Alabama State, Southern Miss, Liberty
LSU: SE Louisiana, LA Tech, Rice
UGA: Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee, UMass
Florida: Charleston Southern, Colorado State, Idaho

Not much difference in any of those...it's not like most other SEC schools are doing anything different. Granted, the SEC teams that have an OOC rival, i.e., UGA, SCe, and UF, every other year or so will schedule a Power 5 team the first game or two of the season in addition to their rival...

The SEC needs to go to nine conference games. Ohio State's regular season this year consists of 11 Power 5 teams and 1 Group of 5...most of the PAC-12, B1G, and Big 12 teams are playing at least 10 Power 5 games...and you can believe their coaches and commissioners will keep harping to the press and the committee 'bout the scheduling disparity despite the SEC's and ACC's recent dominance in the play-offs...

This post was edited on 9/13/18 at 10:53 am