LSU’s bowl game will be a sneak peek into next year in more ways than one.

The Tigers learned Sunday they will play in the Cheese-It Citrus Bowl for the third time in the last seven years, but it will be the first-ever football meeting between the Tigers and the Purdue Boilermakers.

Both lost conference championship games Saturday — LSU 50-30 to No. 1 ranked Georgia, and Purdue, 43-22, to Michigan.

Purdue is 8-5.

After going from worst to first in the SEC West, the Tigers (9-4) will be trying to break a two-game losing streak at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

Ranked No. 5 in the polls two weeks ago LSU fell two more spots to No. 15 after the loss the Georgia.

“Our team certainly is looking forward to getting back on the winning ways,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “We’ve lost two games

“It’ll be a great matchup between two teams that want to go out on a winning note … finish on on a positive note.”

The game on Jan. 2 (Monday) will be the first of two consecutive games the Tigers will play in Orlando, Fla., as they open next season in the same stadium against Florida State.

Oddly, Florida State is getting the same on-site advance scouting trip, as the Seminoles will play in the Cheese-It Bowl (a different game in the same stadium) on Dec. 29.

Kelly is well familiar with Purdue and head coach Jeff Brohm from his days at Notre Dame.

“Lot of respect for Jeff and his teams. They play with an edge when I was at Notre Dame and it was good, got a great creative offense, really good defensive structure.”

“To play LSU is just a great opportunity,” Brohm said. “This just presents a really, really big challenge for our team and a big hurdle.When you play a team of this caliber, the SEC, you’ve got to play at your best.”

It will be the second time LSU has finished one season in the same stadium for a bowl where it opens the next. In the 2010 Cotton Bowl LSU beat Texas A&M in AT&T Stadium and then went back to Arlington, Texas to open the next season with a victory over Oregon.

LSU is one of three state schools that will be bowling, including an historic trip for Tulane.

The Green Wave (11-2), who won the American Athletic Conference championship game with a 45-28 win over Central Florida Saturday, will face Southern Cal (11-2) in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2 in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The Trojans (11-2) had designs on the College Football Playoff before losing to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship game.

The Wave, which moved jumped two spots to finish No. 16 in the final CFP rankings, earned the Cotton Bowl berth by being the highest ranked team among the Group of Five conference champions.

It will be Tulane’s first appearance in a traditional New Years Day bowl game since the 1940 Sugar Bowl, and chance to avenge a 21-20 loss to the Trojans in the 1932 Rose Bowl.

Meanwhile UL-Lafayette will make its first appearance in Shreveport’s Independence Bowl on Dec. 23 against the University of Houston.