BATON ROUGE — The LSU football team and Tiger Stadium are both well represented in the CBS Sportsline.com listings of the top teams entering the 2003 season and college football’s best stadiums.
In its preseason Top 25, CBS Sportsline.com has the Tigers ranked No. 15 in the nation, which is up four spots from its post-spring practice rating of No. 19. Oklahoma holds down the No. 1 ranking, followed by Auburn at No. 2, Ohio State at No. 3, Kansas State at No. 4 and Virginia Tech at No. 5. Auburn visits Tiger Stadium on Oct. 25.
Other Southeastern Conference teams in the top 25 include Georgia at No. 7, Tennessee at No. 22 and Alabama at No. 25. LSU hosts Georgia on Sept. 20 and travels to Alabama on Nov. 15.
In its brief write-up about the Tigers, the website calls LSU wide receiver Michael Clayton the best player in the SEC.
In the listing of top 10 college football stadiums, Tiger Stadium ranked No. 5 with a score of 45. Texas A&M’s Kyle Field was voted the best stadium in the country with a score of 48. Stadiums were judged based on atmosphere, history, tradition, fans and architecture. LSU scored perfect 10s in atmosphere and fans, a nine in tradition and 8.5 in history and a 7.5 in architecture.
Other teams in the top 10 include Notre Dame at No. 2 with 47 points, Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium at No. 3 with 46 points, Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium No. 4 with 45.5 points, Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium No. 6 with 44.5 points, Florida State’s Doak Campbell Stadium No. 7 with 44 points, Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium No. 8 with 43.5 points, Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium No. 9 with 43 points and Georgia’s Sanford Stadium 10th with 42 points.
The poll also called LSU’s Mike the Tiger the most intimidating mascot in the nation.