This is from Newsok.com http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1151307&TP=getsooners You need to register to get their articles so I posted it below. LSU has huge home edge -- or does it? 2004-01-04 By Berry Tramel The Oklahoman NEW ORLEANS -- Towering in the northwest corner of downtown with other Big Easy skyscrapers, the Superdome hovers like a massive flying saucer. Which it might as well be come today. LSU fans are said to be out of this world. Call it close encounters of the Cajun kind. OU coach Bob Stoops the other day likened playing LSU in the Superdome to playing Florida State in Miami. Not even close. Tallahassee, Fla., to Miami is still a day's drive by Chevy or bi-plane. From the Florida Panhandle, it's as close to Texas as it is to Dade County. Not so in the Bayou. New Orleans is an LSU town. Dumb luck coincided the Oklahoma Sooners' first Sugar Bowl trip in 31 seasons with LSU's first national championship bid in 45 years. And despite the best efforts of Sooner fans and tourists from all over the globe who wouldn't know a football from a muskrat, this ancient burg is painted purple and gold. LSU fans long have held dear their status as college football's zaniest and most passionate. Playing in a meaningful Sugar Bowl, with signs sprouting "Geaux Tigers" in Bourbon Street windows, is the dream scenario for Louisiana. But LSU's home-field advantage ends on Poydras Avenue. It doesn't go through the doors of the space machine. Sunday night on the environmental front, OU can hold its own. "Like most games when you're away from home or in a neutral site, when you play well, you hear your people," Stoops said. "We'll have plenty here that if we play well, you'll hear them, and if they play well, you hear their people. That's pretty much how it goes." If the Superdome seated 175,000, the Sooners might be not just disadvantaged but endangered. Instead, the 'Dome tops out at 75,000; the best guesses put ticket distribution at 2-to-1 in LSU's favor. That's a ratio OU can live with. "I don't think the crowd's going to be a factor," OU defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek said. Not indoors. Outside's another tale. New Orleans officials estimate the avenues along the stadium to fill with 100,000 football fans who failed to land the pearl of great price, tickets marked at $150 but resold for 10 times the price. Hey, Sooner fans, flee the streets. You'd be safer on the boulevards of Baghdad. But in the 'Dome, the rule of law remains, and the Sooners should get a fair shake. The 'Dome is loud but not ear-busting, if the Cowboys-Saints game a week ago is barometer. LSU fans will test that theory, no doubt, but 20,000 Sooner fans, maybe more, can cushion the roar. "We've played in loud stadiums before," OU offensive tackle Wes Sims said. He started citing such coliseums. Nebraska, Texas A&M, oops, the Sooners lost in their most recent foray to each. But Sims said the Sooners have a solid silent-count system, and despite shrimp Po- Boys in every cafe', this isn't LSU's home field. "It doesn't say LSU in both end zones," Sims said. Home-field advantage never has been just about crowd decibel. Familiarity, routines, comfort zones, they all help give home teams an edge. If this game was down Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge, on a Saturday night, well, the Sooners would be sunk. Tiger Stadium is a legendary den of vipers. "Our fans have a special passion," LSU coach Nick Saban said. "Our stadium is the best. We have the best fans. They can affect the outcome of games." But in New Orleans? Cajun cookin' doesn't mean home cookin'. LSU has raised rowdy fans since the Depression days of Gov. Huey Long, but the Tigers are just 4-7 in their 11 Sugar Bowls. Truth is, home-field advantage is slight in most bowls. The Southwest Conference hosted the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for more than a half a century, but Texas teams sputtered on New Year's Day: 22-26-1. UCLA was 5-5 in the Rose Bowl before it made the Pasadena jewel its home turf. Florida State and Florida are a combined 6-4 in the Orange Bowl. For serious home-field bowl advantage, you have to look to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl. The Trojans are 21-8 in the Granddaddy, and judging by USC's dismantle of Michigan on Thursday, it would have won most of those Rose gardens even if you played them in Battle Creek. Stoops, who taught Norman Vincent Peale the power of positive thinking, wouldn't admit an LSU edge even if he believed it. But his reasoning is sound why the UFO turf is even Steven. "This isn't where they play all their games," Stoops said. "They only let so many guys in the stadium." And that's no matter how many Cajuns parade down Poydras.
If no other reason I just saw it on ESPN scrolling the bottom of screen...... LSU is undefeated the last 9 games inside
