Certainly you’ve noticed by now that it’s 2019 — only a few months away from all of those end-of-the-decades lists! — and if you are an LSU fan, this is the year you have been waiting for.

You can’t spell optimism without L-S-U (actually, you can), but the Tiger faithful will tell you that next year is finally this year.

There is the feeling in Baton Rouge that the stars have finally aligned for what could be the greatest year in LSU sports history. Whether or not you have purple-and-gold glasses, consider:

** The basketball team has more talent than it has had in about 30 years with one of the top recruiting classes in the country to go with a fairly good team coming back.

** The baseball team always has high expectations, but is ranked No. 1 in two pre-season polls and didn’t lose a great deal from last year’s team to go with recruits who can immediately step in. All the pieces seem to be in place.

** The football team has almost all of its key skill position players back on offense and a defense that could go from very good to great next year. The ’19 schedule is much easier than this year. Goodbye Georgia, hello Vanderbilt. Yes, they have to go to Alabama and Texas, but Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M are all at home.

There is no such thing as reasonable expectations when it comes to college athletics (this is not indigenous to LSU), but here goes anyway:

** Basketball: Final Four is probably out of reach, but certainly one of the better teams in the SEC and at least be playing on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

** Baseball: Omaha. Repeat, Omaha. At the very least, Omaha. Then we’ll see.

** Football: College Football Playoff. Even if you pencil in a loss at Alabama, 11-1 is in the bomb sites. With some solid wins during the regular season, it wouldn’t be a shocker to get two SEC teams in the semifinals. A New Year’s Six bowl game would just seem like … 2018.

Chances of all of these happening? Not very good. There’s lots that can go wrong, but it’s still a great position to be in as the new begins. If you are a Tiger fan, it beats the alternative.