Hey, LSU fans. You’ve got it all wrong. Hear me out.

Mike the Tiger is a fabulous mascot. Pete Maravich was my all-time favorite basketball player. That home run by LSU’s Warren Morris in the College World Series, why, it still brings tears to my eyes. Cajun food? Love it.

OK, time to drop the bomb. I’m picking LSU to beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

Really. Just LSU’s slippery return man Skyler Green, I’ve stopped on a dime and reversed field. Finally, I see the light, and it looks purple and gold.

USC will win half of the national title at the Rose Bowl, but I still see LSU coach Nick Saban lifting that glass-football trophy at the Superdome. I see Tiger players mugging for the TV cameras, shouting, “We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1!” I see the wildest party New Orleans has ever hosted.

Gee, I wish I could’ve foreseen LSU beating Georgia in the SEC championship game, too.

Ah, yes. That! You might want to venture into cyberspace for a refresher course on that ill-advised column. Admittedly, not one of my finest moments.

Full disclosure. I once thought the Colts would beat the Jets in Super Bowl III. I already had tickets for the Cubs-Red Sox World Series. I believed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would repeat as Super Bowl champions. And my stone-cold political lock: Mondale over Reagan.

As all my LSU buddies have reminded me, my prognostication skills sometimes are shaky. Thanks, also, to the 327 e-mailers who checked in — before, during and after the SEC title game — for reminders about the Georgia pick.

Geaux away? Nah. It made for an easy target, but you helped me discover the truth.

The truth being this: LSU (12-1) is terrific. Its defense hasn’t gotten nearly the credit of Oklahoma’s, but the Tigers might be the baddest bunch around. Matt Mauck is a rock of stability at quarterback. Did you know that Mauck led his league in passing efficiency, ranking even better than Ole Miss’ Heisman candidate Eli Manning? There are a boatload of underrated weapons, including freshman running back Justin Vincent, whose 201 rushing yards against Georgia made believers out of everyone.

Saban is a big-time coach, a guy who finally has harnessed LSU’s potential, where others have failed.

First and foremost, the Tigers have been toughened by a season in the SEC, best conference in the land.

My first view of LSU this season was admittedly clouded. It was Oct. 11, and I was in Baton Rouge to cover LSU-Florida. The Gators were reeling at 3-3. LSU was ranked No. 6 nationally. It wasn’t supposed to be much of a game. Something along the lines of 47-13 wouldn’t have been surprising.

Then came the shocker. Florida, behind freshman quarterback Chris Leak, stunned LSU 19-7. At that moment, it looked like a fluke. We didn’t yet know that Florida had some pluck. We didn’t yet know that Leak was the nation’s best freshman quarterback.

At that moment, it seemed like LSU had inexplicably overlooked an outmatched opponent and was about to pay for it by dropping out of the national-championship race.

We should have paid closer attention to what happened next.

LSU regained its focus. It began to pick up steam. Boom! A 31-7 knockout of Auburn. Bam! A suffocating road win at Ole Miss, then unbeaten in the SEC. Finally, a 55-point statement against Arkansas, setting the Tigers up for a rematch with Georgia in the SEC title game.

This was the real proving ground. After all, how many teams are faced with having to twice defeat the same top five-ranked opponent in the same season?

Answer: Only one comes to mind.

LSU came through with remarkable ease, drubbing Georgia 34-13 at the Georgia Dome. By the mid-fourth quarter, the Dome was nearly half-empty. And the LSU bandwagon was full.

Saban handled it all very professionally. He didn’t campaign for the Sugar Bowl. He didn’t whine about the computers. He got his Tigers ready to play, and they were ready. Boy, were they ready.

LSU players were quite mature, simply taking care of business, then relying upon their accomplishments to land the Tigers in the proper place.

When the number-crunching was done, LSU rightly landed at the Sugar Bowl. Perhaps the most telling quote came from Georgia safety Sean Jones. “They came in here and beat us pretty handily,” Jones said. “And we’re not a slouch or anything.”

LSU should tune out the people who are complaining about the BCS. USC, the consensus No. 1-ranked team in the two human polls, has a large gripe. And it’s true. Had Hawaii beaten Boise State in that bizarre late-night game to cap the regular season, the Trojans would have nosed out LSU for the Sugar Bowl bid.

That would’ve been a crime.

LSU earned its bid. USC deserved one, too.

The strength of schedule thing ended up as a push. Yes, LSU played the likes of Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech and Western Illinois (some of those late replacements for more established teams that dropped the Tigers).

LSU had the murderous SEC schedule. USC didn’t play as many softies, but its Pac-10 slate was mediocre at best, certainly not comparable to the SEC.

The problem, in my mind, was Oklahoma hanging on as the BCS No. 1, despite its 35-7 loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game. That was a thrashing, an embarrassment, really. It seems ludicrous that a team unable to win its conference is now playing in a national-championship game.

But that debate isn’t LSU’s problem.

Some have said that Oklahoma will be even more dangerous now. The Sooners (12-1) have been wounded, both physically and emotionally, and they’ll come out fighting. They’ll be angry.

Maybe that’s true. But LSU is up to this task. Oklahoma is like a heavyweight champion, finally knocked to the canvas for the first time. Now there are doubts. The Sooners have a great team, but not one of the greatest of all-time. They are beatable as K-State showed the world.

Meanwhile, this Tigers program is on the upswing. It is peaking at the right time. It has earned this shot at some, if not all, of a national championship.

That’s what I believe. I’ve been wrong before (as you know). This time, I don’t think so. Another LSU victory should be satisfaction enough. And, like the Cajuns might say, it could make my dubious SEC prediction all but geaux away.

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