By Chad Conine

Tribune-Herald staff writer

BATON ROUGE, La. — When top-ranked Alabama enters LSU’s Tiger Stadium on Saturday, the Crimson Tide will be walking into college football’s haunted house.

It’s the kind of place a visitor would rather see bathed in daylight.

Because at night, the purple-and-gold-clad freaks come out.

'American Hooligan'

Tribune-Herald staff writer Chad Conine is touring the Big 12 South and beyond this fall to take a closer look at the battle between passion and sportsmanship, and to try and answer this question: Are college football fans becoming the American version of English soccer hooligans?

Read the series

• 11-07-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 4: LSU football frenzy tale of night and day 
• 10-17-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 3: Texas, Oklahoma fans full of hate -- until the whistle blows 
• 09-26-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 2: Texas Tech tries to keep fans from crossing the line 
• 09-06-08  THE AMERICAN HOOLIGAN, Part 1: Big 12 officials seek to keep rivalries intense while stamping out fan violence 
• 09-06-08  Chad Conine: Sportswriter's driving mission: Seeking out the American Hooligan 

“The sun goes down, and it’s crazy,” said Colorado Robertson, LSU’s student government president.

And that’s by design.

All of LSU’s home games are scheduled for 7 p.m. If the Tigers play in Tiger Stadium at any other time, it’s because television interfered with tradition.

The 7 p.m. kickoff gives the LSU faithful enough time to properly rile themselves into a frenzy. Fans eat, and especially drink, at tailgate parties that virtually blanket the school’s campus. By the time the sun goes down Saturday, that creates one of the most raucous and intimidating venues in all of American sports.

“People show up Friday afternoon and they go all Friday night and all day Saturday,” said Richard Condon, a popular sports talk radio host at 1210 AM The Score in Baton Rouge. “By 7 o’ clock on game night, they’re hammered,”

Whether it’s the party atmosphere, the alcohol or something more mystical, LSU fans believe they have something special at night in Tiger Stadium.

There’s hard evidence to back it up, too.

Since 1960 LSU has a .771 winning percentage at 209-59-3 in night games, while the Tigers haven’t fared nearly as well during the day — they’re 21-24-3 for a .438 winning percentage.

The fact that CBS routinely shifts LSU’s toughest home games to the afternoon — including two weeks ago against Georgia and Saturday’s game against Alabama — factors into the Tigers’ daytime record.

Longer parties, please

But LSU fans no doubt prefer to be walking into their home field when the sun is on its way over the horizon.

After all, they work too hard at having fun tailgating to have their pregame party cut short.

Tents begin popping up midweek for an LSU home game, and campers and RVs roll in Friday afternoon. By Saturday morning, the LSU campus is a college football theme park.

LSU associate athletic director Herb Vincent said he’s seen plenty of schools restrict tailgaters to the afternoon of game day, something he doesn’t want to see happen in Baton Rouge.

When the Tigers play at home, they attract not only the 92,000-plus ticket holders but, Vincent estimates, 15,000 to 30,000 more fans who show up just to tailgate.

It takes the cooperation of three police departments along with an assortment of state troopers and constables to monitor the LSU campus on home game weekends.

Vincent said it’s worth it.

“We make it a priority to manage it for the purpose of preserving it,” he said. “We have families that have been tailgating in the same spot for years. Game day at LSU is about more than going to the game and going home.”

A society unto itself has evolved among the LSU tailgaters. Students tailgate together on one part of the campus. Alumni move from tents as young professionals to RVs when they’re older and more established.

An eye on opposing fans

LSU boasts BCS championships in 2003 and 2007, but its reign as tailgate king is the true dynasty.

“As far as tailgating, it’s unmatched,” Condon said. “That’s what they live for. Sure, when the team is winning it can get loud in the stadium, but it gets loud everywhere.”

So does the party outside help create a den of hooligans inside Tiger Stadium when the ball is put in play?

About 15 minutes before kickoff of the Georgia game, a supposed Georgia fan wore red into a packed student section. Almost the entire group of 14,000 students pointed in rhythm as they chanted “Tiger bait!”

They seemed to know better than to be more aggressive.

“I think that was an undercover cop,” Robertson said. “They’re there just to make sure nothing gets too bad.”

Robertson said it’s his job to promote sportsmanship among the student body and he believes the students get a bad rap for being overly nasty.

Condon admits that Tiger fans are prone to riding the opposition, but he said it’s just another facet of Southern Louisiana culture manifested in the LSU game-day experience.

“They’ll drop an (expletive) on you,” Condon said. “And that’s not nice, but then, right after that, they’ll say, ‘Hey, you want a beer,’ or offer you a plate of food.”

However, LSU fans might not be so willing to share their game-day fare with anyone professing a love for Alabama coach Nick Saban this weekend.

Saban led the Tigers to their 2003 national title before leaving for a short stint with the Miami Dolphins beginning in 2005.

When he returned to the SEC to coach the rival Crimson Tide in 2007, he earned a scarlet T for “traitor” from Tiger fans.

Welcome back, Nick

Condon said it won’t matter that the Tigers are playing in the afternoon this week — Saban and Alabama are going to play in front of an enraged audience.

“LSU fans have had this circled on a calendar for a while,” Condon said. “They want to get Nick Saban back. But the way he has that Alabama defense playing, I don’t know if they’ll get it.”

In general, LSU seems to have its unique college football festival under control.

Tiger fans like to eat and drink until twilight, then turn their stadium into a hostile environment for visitors.

“We had some Georgia fans come down there and sit on the second row of the student section,” Robertson said. “It just didn’t quite work out. I don’t know why, but they wound up leaving.”

Condon said the best thing visitors can do is understand that Southern Louisiana culture allows for some good-natured ribbing.

Does that make for some tense moments at Tiger games? Well, maybe.

“You’re not going to meet any boring people,” Condon said. “People here are outgoing, and if the visiting fans are outgoing and there’s alcohol involved, that’s outgoing times three.”

cconine@wacotrib.com

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