NATCHITOCHES – You can cruise toward Baton Rouge on U.S. 190 eastbound from Opelousas to get to Saturday night's big football contest between Northwestern State and LSU. Just don't come back that way.

If you use the I-10 Mississippi River bridge to enter Baton Rouge, prepare for bumper-to-bumper traffic most if not all of Saturday.

Those are a couple of key travel tips that can be valuable to fans making the trip to Baton Rouge for this weekend's much-anticipated game, the first meeting in 69 years in football between two of the state's three oldest (along with Southern University) public institutions of higher learning.

Repair work is finished on the eastbound Morganza Spillway bridge over U.S. 190 in Pointe Coupee Parish, but crews will be working to lay an epoxy finish on the westbound lanes of the bridge this weekend beginning Friday at 7 p.m. and extending into early Monday morning.

Suggested U.S. 190 detours for westbound traffic include using either La. 415 or La. 77 to go south to I-10 West, or using La. 1 North just west of Erwinville and heading upstate.

Baton Rouge traffic on LSU game days gets congested, especially on the I-10 Mississippi River bridge east lanes. Bumper-to-bumper traffic can back up well into the Port Allen side of the river. Savvy drivers often choose to use the old U.S. 190 bridge and access I-110 to make their way toward the LSU campus and Tiger Stadium.

“My best advice is go early,” said Demon football coach Bradley Dale Peveto, who was an assistant coach at LSU from 2005-08 until becoming NSU's head coach. “The game day atmosphere at LSU is the best. From my friends out tailgating, I've heard all about it, and I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want to get to campus early and make the most out of this great occasion.”

More than 700 NSU fans have reservations for the NSU Alumni Association tailgating party. There will be limited walk-up tickets available for $20 cash only beginning at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, said Haley Blount, associate director of alumni affairs. The NSU Alumni Tailgate will be off Skip Bertman Drive near River Road. The parking lots near the tailgate, the Levee Lots and the Hayfield Lot, are first-come, first-served free parking lots. Fans are urged to allow ample time for parking.

Only about 160 game tickets in the Northwestern section of Tiger Stadium remained available Thursday afternoon through the NSU athletic ticket office. The $40 tickets can be purchased through noon Friday at the athletic fieldhouse just south of NSU's Turpin Stadium, or by phone at 318-357-4268, or online at the nsutickets.com website.

All tickets not picked up at NSU will be held at the Will Call booth at Gate 20 on the southeast corner of Tiger Stadium.

Kickoff is 7 o'clock Saturday night between the Demons (1-0) and the Tigers (1-0). Ticket gates open at 4:30, about 15 minutes after the NSU football team will arrive. The LSU team's walk to the stadium begins at 4:45 with Mike the Tiger and the LSU band marching the same route at 5.

The Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band will perform a 6-minute halftime show in Tiger Stadium just after the football teams leave the field.