Officials in Tuscaloosa, Alabama expect nearly 150,000 fans to attend or tailgate the game beween the No. 1 Louisiana State University Tigers and the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday night, November 5. The game between the two unbeaten teams has been billed as a clash between titans, as Armageddon, as college football's game of the century and whatever other superlative fans and bloggers can hyperventilate over.
The Les Miles-Nick Saban Subplots
The game is filled with subplots:
- Coaches Les Miles of LSU and Nick Saban of Alabama are arguably the two top coaches in college football today. And the media has promoted an alleged dislike of each other that is as strong as the traditional rivalry between the two schools.
- Saban and Alabama are still licking their paws over a loss to LSU in Baton Rouge last year.
- The game has been moved from afternoon to night. LSU has won 16 straight night games.
- Will the game be so close that the loser will be able to move back up in the BCS rankings in time for a rematch in the national championship game?
- Professional scouts will be watching numerous players on both teams in preparation for next year's National Football League draft.
- Miles and Saban (during his years at LSU) are the only two coaches to beat Alabama four times. Miles replaced Saban at LSU when Saban left Baton Rouge to go to the NFL and later to Alabama.
- The game is a multi-million dollar bonanza for Tuscaloosa, boosting potential business for everything from restaurants to limousines.
Alabama a 5-Point Favorite
Can the game match the hype? Although LSU is ranked first nationally, the oddsmakers have made Alabama a five-point favorite, partly because it is the home team. Or might it turn into a blowout for either team, as sometimes happens in national championship games?
Though they currently rank No. 1 and No. 2, there's no guarantee that either one will finish unbeaten because they both have tough archrivals to play later in the season.
LSU must close the season at Ole Miss, which always aims at LSU, and No. 7 Arkansas (7-1), which has replaced Tulane as the Tigers' season-ending archrival. Alabama must end the season against intrastate rival No. 22 Auburn (6-3), the defending national champion, at Auburn.
South Carolina & Georgia Await Winner
Also, the winner of the November 25 game, will almost certainly end up in the Southeastern Conference championship game against the Eastern Division champion, probably Steve Spurrier's No. 9 South Carolina Gamecocks (7-1) .or the No. 18 Georgia Bulldogs (6-2).
A slip by LSU or Alabama in any of those remaining games could open the BCS title game to Oklahoma State, Boise State, Stanford or even once-beaten Oklahoma.
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