The LSU stadium’s 10 recent break-ins, ranked by memorability

I understand the allure of breaking into a cathedral of college football.

I grew up in Gainesville, Fla. While Florida’s stadium is open for most of the day, it does lock down at 10 p.m. But you can either squeeze through or scale the gate in the southeast corner and make it onto the field. I’ve also found my way into Florida State’s Doak Campbell Stadium and Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium with friends.

Breaking and entering giant stadiums is fun and illegal. So while we at SB Nation do not endorse such lawbreaking, folks at LSU have been taking stadium entry to another level.

First of all, how hard is it to break into Tiger Stadium?

A local reporter showed there’s a decent degree of difficulty. Granted, that was during a renovation period, but this isn’t a cakewalk, because the stadium is locked when not in use.

Our LSU blog, And The Valley Shook, believes the law is finally cracking down as well.

“The thing is, I think they're just enforcing it finally, or they put in some new security system. Hell, 10 years ago, the gates weren't even closed in the offseason.”

Even that doesn’t seem to be stopping people.

No: 10: May 20, 2018

The most recent incident doesn’t sound all too exhilarating, so don’t get your hopes up too high. In a nutshell, four male students were caught on camera by police just sitting in the bleachers. They hopped the fence to gain entry.

The five were arrested and charged with unauthorized entry of a place of business.

No. 9: Jan. 14-15, 2017

In January 2017 alone, there wasn’t just one break-in at Tiger Stadium; there were four.

This one included “minor damage to the facility” some time on the night in question.

No. 8: Jan. 22, 2017

The third incident of that month happened the next weekend and was classified in campus police logs as a burglary. If nothing else, whoever pulled this one off was bold, assuming they had knowledge of the previous weekend’s incident. A true copycat crime.

No. 7: Jan. 19, 2018

One of the month’s incident on this list includes three reported arrests. Also, cups:

The burglary occurred on Jan. 19 around 3:30 a.m. Freetage was caught inside the stadium with twelve LSU collector’s cups, according to the affidavit from East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

(The men involved were booked into said prison.)

No. 6: Feb. 4, 2017

Five juveniles broke into Tiger Stadium on an early February afternoon at 1:45 p.m. That is an entire barbershop quintet breaking into a stadium in literal broad daylight.

There were no reported damages, and the young men were detained and released after being cited for “unauthorized entry into a place of business.”

No. 5: Jan. 29, 2017

January 2017’s fourth break-in happened when two Oklahoma students got into the stadium but didn’t get out on their own. As they tried to exit, Johnny Law cuffed ‘em:

According to the police report, officers told the students to "get down," but both ran away and managed to squeeze through a security gate. However, both Holland and Miller were quickly caught by officers with LSUPD.

Samuel Holland and Lucas Meachem pulled this stunt in broad daylight as well, at noon on a Sunday, and were released on $15,000 bond.

No. 4: March 31, 2017

These guys perhaps have had the boldest exit attempt, because they tried to make out with actual signage. Entering the place is one thing, but trying to carry stuff out is another thing entirely.

I’m aware of this because once I grabbed a stadium sign from Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The sign read something about the removal of chair backs from the stadium being unlawful. It said nothing about the removal of signs, however.

No. 3: July 10, 2017

More of an attempted break-in than a success. While this is certainly memorable, it lacks the amusing images of our top two.

No. 2: Nov. 15, 2016

LSU fans like to claim they don’t have a natural rival, and that’s fine. Perhaps the closest they’ve got is Alabama. Doing (presumably drunken) stunts in your counterpart’s home stadium is some deeply rival stuff.

The night before the 2016 Alabama game, two Crimson Tide students got into the stadium and scratched the Tiger eye at midfield. They were promptly arrested.

Points to the young man for the snow angel at midfield. Demerits for getting jammed up by the boys in blue, though. You’ve gotta be more subtle than this. Get in, out, and on with your life. They were issued a summons and released by a Baton Rouge judge that night.

No. 1: January 2017

This set off 2017’s spree when somebody got in (apparently with an ATV) and did this to the south end zone:

Look, I get that rivalry’s important in college football. But when it comes down to it, someone broke into a 100,000-seat stadium with a motor vehicle and did donuts, NASCAR victory lane style, and got out without a trace. That’s No. 1.