BATON ROUGE, La. -- This must be what if feels like to be Alabama. Undefeated. No. 1. Blowing everyone away. Playing for a national championship.

In other words, being LSU these days.

Don't make the Alabama comparison out loud to the average LSU fan, but there is something to it.

In its history, LSU has been great and mediocre, in turmoil and on top. But rarely like this: No. 1, favored and flourishing with yet another "home" game 70 miles away in New Orleans for the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Award-wise and perhaps in reality, these Tigers have the best coach (Ed Orgeron) and best player (Joe Burrow) thrilling what have always been some of the game's best fans.

It is what Alabama (at least up until this season) has been the last decade. It's what No. 1 LSU is now.

"I would never want to feel like Alabama," said Taylor Martty, bar manager at Phil's Oyster Bar and Seafood Restaurant during the lunch rush this week. "I definitely loved feeling like a champion."

Drilling down to the soul of the LSU fan one can see that, much as their team has dominated this season, this feels like their time, too.

They've always been known to win the tailgate.

Now they can win it all at the absolute height of the program's history.

"This is the only time probably in my lifetime we have a Heisman quarterback playing in the national championship in New Orleans with such a great offensive team," said Jordan Piazza. "For me, it was a no brainer. We've got to go."

Piazza, one of the proprietors of Phil's, paid $775 (face value) to sit in the lower level of the Superdome on Monday night.

Consider it a purple and gold bargain.

"Let's face it, LSU fans travel," said Jason Ramezan, the former vice president of the LSU alumni association. "We used to say, 'We don't travel; we take over.'"

Comparing LSU to Alabama at this time is just a bit awkward. Bama has been better in the long run, just not now. In fact, the Tigers are here largely because they slayed the beast -- beating the Crimson Tide on Nov. 9, 2019, for the first time in eight years. That catapulted LSU to one of the high points in its history.

But it's also accurate to say LSU might not be here if Nick Saban hadn't lifted the program to national prominence -- before eventually winding up at Alabama.

"That's what makes him so special," Ramezan said. "Nick Saban is the greatest coach in college football history. Everybody knows that we had him. LSU fans don't hate Nick Saban. They hate that he's doing it at Alabama. To finally be able to beat Alabama, those tears [by Orgeron after the game] spoke for the entire state of Louisiana."

In his spare time, Ramezan runs Mr. Fun's Travel, which sold travel packages to a place an hour down the road. Approximately $1,000 will get you two nights in a hotel. Tickets on the secondary market are shooting through the roof. Mr. Fun's was able to dispose of 15 tickets that averaged $2,000 each.

"It's what an LSU fan has been waiting a long time for," Ramezan said. "A lot of people doubted Coach O, deservedly so because of some of the things that happened at Ole Miss. I can only imagine how he's going to feel getting on that bus, head coach at LSU, going to win a championship in New Orleans."

It's personal for Nick Colligan, a Louisiana sales representative for Tito's Vodka. He sympathized with Orgeron -- a Louisiana native himself -- who has become everyone's coaching underdog.

A failure at Ole Miss, passed over at USC and the third choice when Les Miles was fired, Orgeron has embraced the school, the state and the moment. And proved he could coach a little bit, too.

"I think he got snubbed because of the way he talked," Colligan said with a slight Cajun lilt, though nothing like Orgeron's famous gravelly accent forged in his hometown of LaForce, Louisiana.

Still, Colligan made his point.

"Here's what's so crazy: I've always worked down here because of the way I talked. I've been passed up for bigger jobs," he said. "They were just scared, 'Can we put him in front of a … buyer [up North]?' You know what? I make a great living down here."

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Phil's Oyster Bar | Facebook

Phil's makes a large part of its annual revenue during LSU football season. That and Lent for Friday fish frys in the heavily Catholic area.

"Lent is probably our most consistent," said Anthony Piazza, partners with Jordan in running Phil's. "It doesn't matter who wins or loses."

Regarding the area's second-biggest religion (football), Phil's is one of the "places to be" on Saturday for those who don't snag one of the 102,000 seats at Tiger Stadium.

"I've been to plenty of LSU football games, so I've had the experience," said Martty, who works most football Saturdays. "I'd rather watch them where I have a clean bathroom and I don't have to pay $9 for a beer."

Wow. Picky.

The Piazzas' father, Gus, was a student manager for Charlie McClendon's Tigers in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, after graduation, Gus bought Phil's and made it a local landmark.

Whether you're campaigning for office, studying, drinking or rooting, you will pass through Phil's at some point.

"This is just the LSU hub of fans," said Martty, a 2009 LSU graduate.

That's quite a statement for a restaurant, a city and a region. LSU fans tend to overdo it win, lose or drink. Whatever the result, they wear their hearts on their bourbon-soaked sleeves.

"We get very cocky when we win. We don't take losing very well," Anthony Piazza said. "I think the drinking, which is a big part of our culture, doesn't help it. We can be pretty rude at times."

LSU has been in the championship game in New Orleans three times previously. Here's the difference between then and now:

The Tigers became a national program when Saban led them to a breakthrough season in 2003. But to the everlasting anguish of LSU fans, that remains the last shared national championship. They couldn't celebrate an undisputed title. USC finished No. 1 that year in the AP Top 25.

Miles made the 2007 Tigers the only two-loss national champions in AP Top 25 history. Certainly, that LSU team didn't dominate. It was simply left standing when the game of BCS musical chairs was over.

Then there was the incompleteness of 2011. In the second of two Games of the Century against Alabama, the Tigers crossed the 50 just once in a 21-0 loss. The Superdome that night felt like the air had been let of a balloon.

"This feels different," Ramezan said.

This season is undefeated, pristine, perhaps destined. Win this one, and LSU is not only a champion but a forever team. Clemson last season became the first modern 15-0 team. LSU would be the second.

"It was like the stars aligned," Jordan Piazza said. "It just happens to be in New Orleans."

The Alabama comparison is meant to ignore No. 3 Clemson. Those Tigers are defending national championships, sporting 29 straight wins. A victory Monday night would give them their third championship in four years. It would make Clemson the first back-to-back undefeated champions since Nebraska in 1994-95.

This just seems to be LSU's time. It has won both big -- Burrow famously mercy-ruled Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl semifinal -- and small. It's almost hard to remember LSU having to win three of its 14 games by a touchdown or less (Texas, Auburn, Alabama).

LSU remains supremely confident. 

"We watched the Peach Bowl on TV," Ramezan said of that 63-28 win over the Sooners. "We thought, 'This must be what Alabama fans have felt this last 10 years. They just dominate people. At halftime, it's over, and the stands are empty.' "

How does it get any better?

"It could culminate in the Louisiana Superdome," Ramezan said, "and go straight to Mardi Gras season."