Well, my friends, I’ve been talking about it since I got here, but let me be up front about it.

I like football.

I am a big fan of college football, especially. Which brings me to today’s column. I have a couple of things I’d like to address.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the Tiger.

I like LSU. You like LSU. The SEC is the most competitive conference and has dominated championships and polls for several years now.

It’s very likely some of you are going to go to at least one LSU game this season. I would like to, but I have a five- month old who, for some reason, wants me to be able to buy food for her.

And I am okay with this (I mean the going-to-a-game thing.. The “Feedme, daddy” thing is annoying).

I like that people support the home state team(s), and I like seeing people in purple and gold.

What I don’t like is seeing purple and gold at a football game where LSU is not a participant.

Some of you graduated from ULL. Some from McNeese. Some from other places around the state. I myself attended Northwestern State University (sorry, McNeese grads) (go Southland Conference). One of my best friends gets absolutely outraged when he sees a Tiger shirt at an NSU game.

I agree with him on this, and it is one of the few things we agree on most of the time. Why would you do that? In what world does that make sense?

Again, I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing LSU, but their merchandise is worthless when you step into the tailgating area of an event that doesn’t involve LSU.

What does it say about you? Are you telling us that you can’t be bothered to support a team playing at that event? Or are you saying that neither team is important to you and that only LSU matters. Either way, it begs the question “What the hell are you doing here?”

The absolute best part of this is that you can see it in the student section of college games. It surprises the hell out of me that people will wear an LSU shirt to the always fun NSU-McNeese games, and I wonder if perhaps we, as institutions, should form a group of people to scour the stands for an offender and do something that in no way can be construed as me inciting my readers to violence but would nonetheless get the point across.

The other issue I want to bring before you, my stalwart reader, is one of personal preference. Like I said, I am a graduate of NSU in Natchitoches. I am also attending graduate school at ULL. That makes me a Demon and a Cajun.

Which one, if any, do I owe the most loyalty to? It’s a tough question and, so far, I haven’t gotten a black or white answer. It seems most people, including the Meridional’s own news hawk, Shaun Hearen, can’t say with certainty who you devote your loyalty to. So, I am leaving it up to you.

Who would you give the most loyalty to? Your hometown team? Your alma mater?

Did you attend graduate school, and if so and if it was different than your alma mater, should you be more loyal to them? Or should I just go for LSU?

You’ve noticed the gray box that appears on the sports page every so often? The one that tells you how to give us a sports tip? E-mail your thoughts to me at that address (sports@vermiliontoday.com).

The reason I’d like you to e-mail me is so I can take some of your responses and put them in the paper later this week. That way, you’re voice can be heard. So, go ahead. Vote and e-mail your responses. I’ll pick some of those thoughts and run them in the paper soon.

Oh, and you can expect to see some more of this interaction coming soon, especially when we get into football season.