LSU vs. Alabama has become a behemoth unlike any other in Baton Rouge.
Fans plan their years around the game, players count down the days until the Tide rolls in and LSU coach Les Miles pretends Alabama is just another “quality opponent” while breaking a wry smile.
“There’s no hiding that this game is everything around here, to our fans,” said senior offensive lineman Josh Dworaczyk. “You hear about it all year. It was a lot of love when we won two in a row [from 2010-11], but it was a long fall after the BCS loss. They’re a constant concern.”
While this game has more juice than ever locally, how does LSU vs. Alabama stack up across the national college football landscape?
“Year-in and year-out, this is probably the best game going,” said Pat Forde, Yahoo!’s national sports columnist. “With the way LSU and Alabama are maintaining dominance lately, this is a golden era for the rivalry.”
Barrett Sallee, the Bleacher Report’s lead Southeastern Conference columnist, said the game doesn’t have the “Game of the Century” status that last November’s showdown did, but it should.
“Nationally, there’s not the same buzz,” he said. “Last year almost transcended the sport. That’s not the case this time, but the stakes are about the same. The winner is probably a favorite in the national title chase.”
ESPN again brought its All-Access team to both schools this week, College Gameday will again set up shop prior to the game and CBS will carry it on prime time for a national audience.
That exposure makes LSU-Alabama the most visible college football game for a second straight year.
With that attention comes an inevitable backlash, especially with the offensive ineptitude displayed last season.
“There’s a little fatigue for the aesthetics of some of these games, if they’re played like LSU and Alabama did last year,” said Mark Ennis, a Big East blogger for SBNation. “People complain about bad games in other conferences, but if Saturday is a 16-13 game, it will be called a titanic classic. There’s a bit of a double standard, sometimes.”
That style swings both ways, though. Sallee said the series embodies people’s perceptions of elite SEC football.
“I certainly understand why people may not have liked last year’s 9-6 contest,” he said. “Everyone understands that this game is probably the most important in routinely shaping the SEC West and, in turn, the national picture. Regardless of style, people would be naive not to recognize how good these teams are.”
Last November’s game produced prodigious ratings on CBS, but the January drubbing was the lowest-rated BCS title game ever, leaving LSU and Alabama on a seesaw of relevance to the casual fan.
Forde said there’s a growing contingent of fans who prefer the trending up-tempo style in college football, but added that excitement doesn’t always equal success.
“Until the teams like Oregon or West Virginia that play a fun brand of football beat SEC teams regularly, it’s really just, ‘Sorry,’” he said. “There’s been plenty of drama with LSU and Alabama to make up for a lack of offense.”
Ennis said the rivalry’s impact is secure, across conference and sectional lines, as long as LSU remains Alabama’s premier threat.
“With Nick Saban and his persona combined with Alabama’s legacy, that’s the draw, because there’s a real threat,” Ennis said. “It’s like when people watch Duke basketball or, back in the day, Miami football. People will watch just to see if anybody can beat Alabama. LSU’s one of the few teams left that seems capable of it.”
‘Year-in and year out, this is probably the best game going.’
‘People will watch just to see if anybody can beat Alabama.’
