The smack talk is officially permitted to begin.

McNeese State and Louisiana-Lafayette will announce their formal plans today for a game to be played Sept. 10, 2016, at Cajun Field in Lafayette. It will be the first time the schools have met on the gridiron since 2007.

“It’s a great opportunity for our program and our community to be able to go and play a very good ULL team,” said McNeese head coach Matt Viator. “It will certainly be challenging. Coach (Mark) Hudspeth has done a great job. But it was a great atmosphere in 2007, and hopefully it will be again.”

The teams have met 37 previous times dating to 1951, but this will only be the second game between the two since 1986.

For those who grew up in that era, including McNeese Athletic Director Bruce Hemphill, the appeal of the matchup is strong.

“I think it will draw a great crowd not only from McNeese people, but those people who grew up with or heard about McNeese-ULL rivalry will be out there,” Hemphill said. “I grew up in Southwest Louisiana a part of this. This is exciting news. These two schools go way back and we’re very fortunate to revive the rivalry. We keep it going every year in other sports.”

Hemphill did not disclose the financial arrangements of the one-year, one-game contract other than to say McNeese will receive guarantee money plus a portion of revenue from tickets it sells.

Cajun Field is opening an end zone seating section this year that raises the stadium’s capacity to 38,000 from 31,000. The 2007 game, which McNeese won 38-17, drew a then-overflow crowd of 33,828 fans.

Hemphill said the expansion, combined with the recent level of success for both programs, will make for another hot ticket.

McNeese leads the series 20-15 with a pair of ties thrown in.

The Cowboys will stay in-state for their Football Bowl Subdivision guarantee games the next two seasons. McNeese opens 2015 at LSU.(MGNonline)