BATON ROUGE — I had been on the LSU campus less than five minutes Saturday and was standing outside the Alumni Center, waiting for a friend. I had made special effort to wear the appropriate-colored clothing. As a member of the media in town to cover the LSU-Louisiana Tech game, that meant no purple, gold (or yellow), red or any form of blue, lest I run the risk of being a supporter or detractor of either the Tigers or Bulldogs.

So I went with green. Nice, neutral green.

A women walked by, looked me straight in the eye and said, “You’ve got the wrong colors on.”

Basically, it was a haberdashery-inspired version of “Tiger Bait.”

Lots has changed since I’ve been here last, which was at least 35 years ago. Lots hasn’t. There are many more seats and almost all of those seats are filled with people in non-neutral colors. That’s 100,000 people who have one less decision than the rest of us on game day.

But no matter what you are wearing, game day in Baton Rouge is still an experience that needs to be seen. It’s like Times Square or the Grand Canyon — it may not be your thing, but it needs to be on the list.

Apparently it was on the list for a lot of Louisiana Tech fans. Again, I don’t have a recent form of reference to compare to other teams, but by all appearances inside and outside the stadium, Bulldog fans showed up quite nicely. There’s a dual allegiance for quite a few of them. Though sometimes seen as treasonous, it is a fact of alumni life that many Tech grads will purple-and-gold it up in a heart beat.

That’s very much a one-way street and it runs from Ruston to Baton Rouge, not the other direction.

It’s a good thing Tech fans showed up as they did because though the game listed as a sellout, Tiger Stadium was far from full. The lack of attendance in the stadium between the 5-yard lines continues to be startling. Granted, this wasn’t Alabama or Georgia, but for a program that has such a well-deserved reputation for being such a great game day experience, that doesn’t always translate from the tailgate to the front gate.

As much as Tiger fans enjoy it, there is no doubt that going to a game has become a lot of work to do six or seven Saturdays a year. Some have decided that they’d rather not do the work. The games last too long, prices continue to rise and the traffic in and out of the stadium is ridiculous, even for Baton Rouge (which is saying something).

But this is college football in today’s world and LSU is right there with everybody else. There is marked difference in the haves and have nots that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with performance on the field. LSU doesn’t do anything that any other “have” doesn’t do. Sure, it’s a lot more corporate than it used to be. What isn’t? Never-ending in-game announcements, piped in music, retina-burning electronic messaging are all part of it. It’s sensory overload, but what percent of the attendees are really all that concerned about Cover 2?

With last week’s big win at Auburn, you would have expected there would have been a return-of-the-conquering-hero type of atmosphere, even if it was an in-state opponent from a Group of 5 conference. Instead, it was just another game at Tiger Stadium.

But that’s still a special event. No matter what color you wear.

I guess there’s just the one, in Baton Rouge.

The first college game I ever went to was when I was 8 or 9 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, when the Tigers and the South Carolinas hooked up in the mid-60s. That stadium is the real and original Death Valley but it’s not Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, which is also Death Valley. Talk amongst yourselves…

My first time in Tiger Stadium was 1977 with West Monroe High buddies Clint and Ken. We wanted to see Charles Alexander, No. 4, on his way to becoming the SEC Player of the Year and a two-time consensus All-American. He ran for two million yards that night and the Tigers beat Wyoming, 66-7. We were milling around (whatever that means) outside the stadium afterward and Alexander came walking by in is letter sweater — almost didn’t recognize him since he wasn’t running over anybody.

Then we three guys saw the Saints lose to the Cowboys in New Orleans the next day. Big weekend.

The first time I covered a game in Tiger Stadium was September 15, 1984. The newspaper gave me a Radio Shack computer I didn’t know how to work and a pat on the back and said they’d see me after the game. LSU beat Wichita State 44-7, which meant some of my sportswriting friends had time to help show me how to use the computer and where things were and I wrote a story that sang. I remember it was something like, “LSU beat Wichita State 44-7 Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.”

You can’t coach writing like that.

That old pressbox is gone now and a big new one, I guess 15 or so years old now, is in its place. The most recent time I was in it was the day after Thanksgiving, 2007. LSU lost to Arkansas in triple OT, 50-48, but the pieces fell right and the Tigers beat Ohio State about six weeks later to win their second national championship of the decade.

Saturday night, the Designated Writers staff is supposed to be in Tiger Stadium for the first time together in decades, as odd as that is to write. I will be sweeping up on the radio, JJ Marshall will be typing about pomp pageantry, and we will have you covered on the Louisiana Tech vs. LSU scrap. Kick is 6 p.m.

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