So far, it looks like LSU is 2-for-3 in the Southeastern Conference’s ill-advised but mad scramble to retain the closest thing to as many rivalry games as the Tigers (and other schools) have.

It’s complicated, considering starting next year the league has to work out schedules cramming 74 teams into the pile. OK, sorry, it just seems like that many. Texas and Oklahoma’s entry next season will make it 16.

But LSU, lacking a true blood-rival, has a lot of semi- sort-of rivalries to consider.

Maybe Mississippi State and the Tigers should have come up with one of those silly trophies to pretend like they care about.

The Bulldogs are LSU’s most common opponent, 117 times dating to the Tigers’ 52-0 victory in 1896.

But the Cowbells don’t appear on LSU’s schedule next season.

Arkansas, with the coveted “Boot” to play for, was deemed by the conference as worthy to keep playing.

This week’s trip to Ole Miss, where the fragile little Magnolia Trophy is up for grabs, is also back on the schedule next year.

At least for then.

Beyond that, well, the conference is working on it, using NASA-level computer ware, possibly artificial intelligence. Or who knows? Maybe a dart board.

They’re going to get back to us, real soon the conference says, on what happens after next year.

But of the schools LSU has somewhat of a tradition in playing, Texas A&M, Florida and, of course, Alabama, will also show up next year along with the Hogs and Rebels.

That’s in addition to Oklahoma’s first-ever visit to Tiger Stadium, also with games against Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

The conference scheduling canvas is blank beyond that.

No one is expecting a Renoir. It’s just too awkward with too many mouths to feed and schedule.

That schedule next year, in fact, is being called a “stop-gap” measure that will be “reevaluated” after next year.

Good luck with that. They can’t all come around every year.

And we haven’t even talked about what happens with winter and spring sports.

When Arkansas and South Carolina joined in the1992 season, of course, there was more of a warm-up, a feeling-out period.

The football newcomers weren’t there for the 1991 school year, but basketball, baseball, softball, etc., came in for the winter and spring sports of 1992. Football was the last to join the revamped conference. Same academic year.

The SEC had hit the sweet spot — 12 teams, two divisions, and, for football, one very lucrative championship game.

It was a lot more complicated when Texas A&M and Missouri joined, but it got done (using a lot of computer power).

In the near future, however, there seems no way, however, that LSU will continue to play those five previous regulars on the schedule. There will no longer be divisions. Scheduling pods have been mentioned, whatever that entails.

So, who knows?

There may not be any permanent opponents, although it’s hard to imagine Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, even Texas-Texas A&M, among others in the dustbin.

Maybe they get just one permanent opponent. Maybe they will expand the conference schedule to nine games, which for some reason (mostly coaches, I suspect) they’ve been to reluctant to do.

At any rate, Ole Miss will be going to Baton Rouge next year but there’s no guarantee the Tigers will be going back to Oxford the next season.

So this year could be LSU fans’ last chance for a while to visit the SEC’s most formal tailgating site, The Grove, where fine china and stemware, candelabras and linen tablecloths join fancy hats and blue oxford button-downs as the uniform of the day.

Personally, I prefer Oxford’s Downtown Square for a more laid-back experience. But both are worth keeping around.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com