For some local observers, LSU’s clash against Alabama on Saturday will be more than the Tigers’ biggest game of the season.

It will be a family feud.

Across the Southeast, school allegiances often spin odd twists on familial relationships.

With LSU and Alabama, Crimson blood may or may not be thicker than water come kickoff Saturday night.

English junior and New Orleans native Katie Martin knows the pitfalls that come with differing family fandoms.

“My sister is a senior at Alabama, and I try not to use this word, but she’s an obnoxious fan about it,” Martin said. “Face-to-face, we’re pretty nice. There’s always gloating when one side wins, of course.”

Martin said Alabama’s current top-dog status has made trash talk a perilous proposition in recent months.

“I actively avoid arguments with her because of situations like this where they’re No. 1,” she said. “She can throw that in my face. And they beat us so bad last time.”

Local teacher Panay Burland sees the opposite side of the coin. A Mobile, Ala., native and Alabama graduate, she now lives squarely in Tiger country, married to an LSU alumnus and longtime Tiger fan.

Burland said her husband, Jimmy, won’t even watch an Alabama game in the same place with her.

“We cheer for each other until we play each other, but I do get pretty emotional,” she said. “Thankfully, we’re both good sports about it. He’s not a Saban hater or anything.”

The dividing line is nothing new for Burland. Her father went to Auburn and her brother attended Georgia, so there was no family backlash with LSU in the mix.

“It feels like we’re trying to bring all of the good football from the South into the family,” Burland said. “It was natural to bring LSU into the fold. The stakes never get too high because we’re all family.”

That may be the case for Burland, but leave it to a pair of identical twins to have a healthy division when it comes to the rivalry.

Recent LSU student and Baton Rouge resident Chris Keele and his brother, Tim, an Alabama senior, have placed a wager on the game for each of the past four years.

“We weren’t even really into football when we first got to college, and this game has really made us into fans,” Tim said. “We made a sushi dinner bet on the first one, and it’s just blown up since.”

This year, there’s talk of a tattoo. An Alabama win could mean a Scarlet A on Chris’ back, while a Tiger triumph could lead to a fleur-de-lis with a Tiger eye in the center on Tim’s back.

Chris said those plans are still tentative, saying, “Our significant others might kill us.”

But a Facebook name change is a definite wager on this year’s game.

Tim has to change his middle name on Facebook to “Tiger Bait” if LSU wins, and Chris’ would become “Deacon Blues” — a reference to a Steely Dan song about a team that can’t beat Alabama — if the Tide roll.

Still, one LSU student may have the most strings of all tugging at him come Saturday.

Austin McDonald, a graduate student and coach of the LSU Speech and Debate team, has two brothers at Alabama, but his allegiance hardly ends there.

McDonald grew up a ’Bama fan, received an undergraduate degree from the university and competed on the Tide’s speech and debate team.

“If you grow up in Alabama, you’re sorted into one of two houses, almost like Harry Potter,” McDonald said. “Mine was a total Alabama family. My two brothers are there, on the speech team, just like I was. When I applied [to LSU] for grad school, my family almost couldn’t comprehend it.”

Saturday night, he will be in Shreveport with his LSU debate squad, as they will be competing against Alabama and his younger brothers, among others, while the Tide and Tigers battle in Tiger Stadium.

McDonald, who has also taught several LSU football players in communications classes, said he almost doesn’t know how to feel as the game approaches.

“The division within myself gets really, really interesting,” he said, from his office adorned in purple and gold sans a lone Crimson couch. “The words, ‘Geaux Tigers’ used to feel very foreign and icky, yet I’ve been indoctrinated into the culture here. I love the football games and the tailgating. I coach an LSU team. That’s a strong pull.”

McDonald said his brothers constantly check in to make sure he isn’t “slipping,” but he acknowledged that home is still where his loyalties lie.

“If push came to shove, I’d root for Alabama, because that’s my roots,” he said. “I just don’t feel like it’s an ‘us vs. them’ thing anymore. I love my family, I love Alabama and I love LSU.”

‘I just don’t feel like it’s an ‘us versus them’ thing anymore. I love my family, I love Alabama and I love LSU.’