Cat Fanciers

Any doubt this is LSU Tiger country fades the minute a traveler deplanes at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

The first sight -- before the baggage claim area, before the rental car desk -- is the Bayou Bar, where two Tiger banners have been proudly hung in front and Tiger burgers are the special of the day ... every day.

John Strawbridge Sr., the bar’s manager, stood out front Tuesday, beaming at the prospect of his team’s taking the field Jan. 4 against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl for the bowl championship series title.

As a junior college linebacker more than four decades ago, Strawbridge wasn’t offered a scholarship by LSU. But his enthusiasm undeterred, he sat on the sidelines and rooted for the teams of former coach Charlie McClendon anyway.

“They used to say that it might rain before and it might rain afterward in Tiger Stadium,” Strawbridge said.

“But it never rained during the games coached by Charlie McClendon. I go back to those days and when [1959 Heisman Trophy winner] Billy Cannon and them played.”

Although Strawbridge is excited to see his Tigers back in the national spotlight, he said he speaks for many in town when he declares that Oklahoma is not the preferred opponent for the Sugar Bowl, to be played in New Orleans’ Superdome about 70 miles away.

“Everybody around here wanted to play SC,” Strawbridge said. “USC won their conference. LSU won their conference. Oklahoma didn’t win their conference. We just don’t think that’s right.”

Down at the rental car desk, Wes Burcham voiced the same sentiment.

“If I was in L.A.,” he said, “I’d be furious. No one understands why USC is not in the Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma ought to be No. 3. Everybody I talk to thinks so.”

One thing for sure is that virtually everyone in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area is talking about college football, always a popular topic here but especially so now that the Tigers have a chance to win their first national championship since 1958.

“At a high school in Monroe, even in church on Sunday,” LSU Coach Nick Saban said Tuesday during an appearance in New York, of the places he has been where the No. 1 topic is LSU football.

Saban said he’s happy to talk about every aspect of the Sugar Bowl game -- except one.

“Don’t call me for tickets,” he said. “I even told my mother that.”

At T.J. Ribs, an offramp away from the LSU campus, Cannon himself, a Heisman Trophy winner for the Tigers in 1959, was in for lunch Tuesday.

The marquee outside reads, “National championship sweet as sugar.” Framed in the doorway is a jersey of former LSU basketball star Shaquille O’Neal. And everywhere, there are photos of past Tiger athletic stars.

“The BCS is so messed up,” said Adam Turkington, a T.J. waiter and a history major at LSU. “USC has a good argument, but people shouldn’t take it out on LSU. I would like to see them play each other so that everybody will shut their mouths.

“This is finals week, but nobody’s talking finals. They are all talking LSU football.”

A particularly hot topic is game tickets. Waitress Marcia Ricca said she heard of a single ticket going for $1,300. The Advocate, the local newspaper, reported that tickets on EBay were being priced up to $2,500.

“People will pay anything,” Ricca said.

Apparently. Joseph Costello, T.J.’s manager and a former basketball player at LSU, said one customer had bragged to him that he had already rented out his Tiger Stadium suite, containing approximately 30 seats, for the Sugar Bowl. One-day rental: $75,000.

“I think people in town feel sorry for SC,” Costello said. “They feel compassion for a team that finishes No. 1 and doesn’t get to play for the championship. But we haven’t won a national championship in football here at LSU in 45 years.”

Said Marty Villard, a restaurant patron and another LSU grad, “I guess the Pac-10 is the weaker conference. It came down to the schedule. They all agreed to abide by the system even though they knew someone was going to get hurt and someone did.”

Things were much calmer on the LSU campus, where students were supposedly engrossed in finals. A banner at the entrance to the school read, “Welcome to LSU, Geaux Tigers,” the word “go” altered to Cajun style.

But it wasn’t so calm over the weekend, when LSU beat Georgia in the SEC championship game and was selected for the Sugar Bowl.

“Man, it was wild,” said Jacob Broussard, an LSU law student. “A couple of the guys from the frat houses set towels on fire and were burning them, and other people down the street were burning a couch.

“Seventy to 75% of the students on this campus will be in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, tickets or not.

“It’s going to be more fun than any Mardi Gras.”

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Staff writer David Wharton contributed to this report from New York.