Sunday’s Bowl Championship Series announcement was anything but predictable in the weeks leading up to the final regular season weekend in Division I-A college football, including Rose Bowl forecasts pointing to an LSU-University of Michigan matchup. Many fans, sports pundits and even Gov. Kathleen Blanco were not expecting to hear that LSU would be Allstate Sugar Bowl bound. Shortly after the announcement, Brian Broussard, director of ticket operations, said in a news release that all 17,500 tickets allotted to the University had been sold to season ticket holders who requested tickets by the Nov. 20 deadline. Students may continue to request tickets online via lsusports.net. UCLA’s upset of the University of Southern California and the University of Florida’s victory in the Southeastern Conference Championship turned the college football world upside down and pushed LSU into a Jan. 3 meeting at 7 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome against the University of Notre Dame. After selling more than 40,000 pre-sale tickets and lobbying heavily for a Rose Bowl berth, a few players expressed a bit of disappointment about not playing in the “grand-daddy” bowl game in California. “No, it mattered,” junior defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey said when asked if he cared about playing in Pasadena, Calif., or New Orleans. “I just let the end result come out. Without a doubt, we’ll be fired up.” But to a few players, like junior quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the Sugar Bowl is a welcomed invite. “A lot of people wanted to take a trip to California, but it’s not different to me,” he said. “Once coach [Les Miles] broke the news that we’re playing Notre Dame, we had a lot of people smiling.” The Sugar Bowl berth is the Tigers’ third invitation in six seasons. LSU won the 2003 BCS National Championship, 21-14, against the University of Oklahoma and also beat the University of Illinois in the 2002 Sugar Bowl, 47-34. “[Southern California] had not taken care of their business, and so we really could see the direction we were going to go,” Miles said. “I personally had to vote for Florida. I felt like it was the right thing. The SEC champion should be playing for the national championship.” The coaches’ votes make up one-third of the BCS rankings. The other two-thirds come from the Harris Interactive Poll and six other computer polls. Metairie native and junior safety Craig Steltz said he is elated to return to New Orleans and compete against the Fighting Irish in his hometown. “Our family and friends will have the opportunity to come to the game,” he said. “It’s going to be an awesome game.” Miles expressed no disappointment in playing in the Sugar Bowl. “We look forward to playing there,” he said. “That’s going to be a great venue. It’s going to be at home. So many of our friends and family probably could not have made that western trek. They’re going to be able to go down to the [French] Quarter and enjoy this game, I promise you.” Following the announcement, many LSU players expressed their interest in competing against the Fighting Irish and its Heisman Trophy candidate, quarterback Brady Quinn. “We get to play Notre Dame, man,” Dorsey said with a smile. “They’re on TV every week. Growing up as a child, all you see is Notre Dame. We’re going to come out and look forward to getting some hits on [Quinn]. How many people can say they have sacked a Heisman Trophy winner?” Miles said he is satisfied to finish the season by playing a nationally-prominent team like the Fighting Irish. “Notre Dame, any way you cut it, is a quality team,” he said. “They’re one of those traditionally historic football programs. It will be a great matchup.” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said in a teleconference following the announcement that the game against LSU is intriguing but did express concern about a potentially purple-and-gold clad fan base in the Superdome. “It’s probably going to be two-to-one LSU [fans] in the stands,” Weis said. “We’re just happy to play the Tigers in their home state.” Florida will play Ohio State University in the BCS national championship game. The University of Oklahoma will play Boise State University in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, and the University of Michigan will face off against USC in the Rose Bowl. In the Orange Bowl, the University of Louisville will compete against Wake Forest University.
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