About 954 miles separate Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge and Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. That is a 14-hour drive, or a five-hour flight. It is a distance many Tigers fans had to “geaux” to watch the College World Series in-person.
If you were not bleeding purple and gold in Omaha, you were likely one of the 3.586 million viewers that helped make it the most watched game in history. According to ESPN, Monday’s championship-deciding game was the most-watched College World Series game ever.
Fans also shattered the CWS Jell-O Shot Challenge, purchasing 68,888 Jell-O shots at $5 a piece. LSU fans spent nearly $344,440 on jiggly alcohol. The grand total spent on non-jiggly alcohol likely exceeds this.
But this information should not come as a surprise, LSU fans are one of a kind. The good kind.
Whether it’s baseball, basketball or football, LSU fans will be there cheering on the team. The amount of energy and loyalty that is seen in the fans during football season continues into the other sports programs the school has. Winners or losers, LSU fans remain.
Maybe our fanbase is different from the others because it does not start with a rivalry within the state first. We have one SEC team. We do not have to choose to root for Auburn or Alabama if we live in Alabama. Ole Miss or Mississippi State if we live in Mississippi.
Louisiana has LSU. Rooting for LSU is one of the few times people unite and agree on one thing. Religion, politics and other worldly views are forgotten because in these moments the only thing we pay attention to is the score of the game.
A loss for the team impacts the fanbase just as much as it does the players. When the team wins, the fans win too, and being from Louisiana, we know how to celebrate.
The brutal 24-4 loss in the second game of the series should have shattered any hope of victory, yet LSU fans still showed up believing in their team.
Hundreds of fans welcomed the baseball team home as they cheered outside of Alex Box Stadium upon the teams return. Many more continued the celebration the next day.
When the women’s basketball team won its national championship earlier this year, LSU hosted a parade on campus that was followed by a celebratory event inside the PMAC.
The same celebratory style was seen in 2019, when the football team won the national championship.
In every national championship LSU has played, there were millions of fans watching and hundreds to thousands of fans traveling to cheer on the team in-person.
Even when the LSU teams are doubted by others and deemed the underdog, the fanbase unshakeably believes in what the other fanbases do not. They believe in victory despite how challenging it may seem.
Everyone thinks their own fanbase is the best, meaning the “best” fanbase can never accurately be measured. We all have different definitions for what is best.
The loyalty of LSU fans, however, has been proven time and time again. It is what makes us one of a kind.
There is only one thing that could make this fanbase better than it already is…
Let the band play “Neck.”
Lauren Madden is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Mandeville.