BATON ROUGE - Hours until an unusual kickoff at Tiger Stadium Saturday, LSU announced there are more tickets available for the game against USC.

The Gamecocks were forced to play a home game at Tiger Stadium this weekend because of historic flooding in South Carolina. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.

LSU said Friday night, about 40,000 tickets have been sold. Tickets will be on sale Saturday morning and until halftime during the game.

USC arrived in Baton Rouge shortly after 4:30 Friday afternoon. The team was escorted to the team hotel.

Billboards along the route from the airport to the hotel off College Drive welcomed the team to Louisiana. There were also signs at the airport welcoming the team, telling them to feel at home in their "home away from home."

Thursday, the newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, posted a story about the most impressive ways Baton Rouge, LSU and Louisiana were helping to ease the pain of the disaster there and the struggle of moving the game at the last minute.

LSU will ceremoniously give the keys to Tiger Stadium to USC Saturday. Among other things, the Golden Band from Tigerland learned the USC fight song and alma mater.

A Gamecocks hype video will be played in Tiger Stadium, too.

LSU said it will host a joint tailgate for both fan groups from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Parade Grounds Saturday.

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