The Fighting Tigers of Louisiana State University are members of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference. Louisiana State University is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The school has twenty varsity sports with its earliest sport, football, started in 1893 by a chemistry professor by the name of Dr. Charles E. Coates. In its first football season, LSU only played against one team, Tulane University Green Wave and the Tigers won. Since then, the football team has gone on to win three national championships with the latest being in 2007 over the Oklahoma Sooners. The Fighting Tigers Baseball team has won six College World Series Titles! Why are the players called fighting tigers? The name comes after a Confederate Brigade called the Louisiana Tigers that fought during the American Civil War. The school has a live mascot called Mike the Tiger, which is a Bengal tiger. "Mike" is named after a former athletic trainer and was originally purchased from the Little Rock Arkansas Zoo. Currently a Bengal-Siberian mix tiger is the live mascot and is named Mike VI.

Football games are played in Tiger Stadium, and much like Clemson University who also has a Tiger mascot, their stadium is nicknamed Death Valley. Tiger Stadium is an outdoor facility in Baton Rouge with a capacity of over 92,000. It ranks in the top ten of the largest stadiums in the United States and in the top twenty largest stadiums in the world. Death Valley presents a problem for opposing teams because it is considered one of the loudest stadiums to play in, often referred to as a drum. Although it is called Death Valley, some people change the name to "DEAF" Valley because of the strong inability to hear! Once when LSU won a game over Auburn University in 1988, the fans were so loud that their reaction was recorded as an earthquake on the seismograph! This is known as the Earthquake game. Tiger Stadium also is known for its exciting game day events! Head on over to SidelineSweetie.com to stock up on all your game day attire! Purple and Gold are the dress colors to be worn and we have you covered! Shop Joy Joy, Judith March, or Tailgate Couture by Shaye Blue gameday dresses and be the fashion star at the next game!

Louisiana's Tiger Marching Band always plays the fight song at every football game when the team runs on the field, at the end of the half, and after field goal or extra points are attempted to be scored. The name of the song is "Fight for LSU." Other songs the band often plays are "Hey Fightin' Tigers," "Touchdown for LSU," and the LSU Alma Mater.

The Fighting Tigers of LSU have some strong rivalries in the Southeastern Conference, and rightfully so with such a strong football program. Rivalries are present amongst most of the schools but the strongest are between The Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Auburn Tigers, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the Ole Miss Rebels. Louisiana State also has a huge rivalry against the University of Florida Gators. Every year LSU plays against Arkansas for the "Golden Boot." They used to play against Tulane for the "Tiger Rag." The game between the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss is called the Magnolia Bowl. No matter what team LSU is playing in the SEC, the game is going to be a hard fought battle because all teams in the conference are superior at football.

Notable football player alumni are Billy Cannon, who won the only Heisman Trophy ever awarded to a LSU Tigers player and JaMarcus Russell, who went to the Oakland Raiders in round one of the NFL Draft in 2006. Other notable athletes from Louisiana State University include Shaquille O'Neal and Pete Maravich, who both played basketball at the school. Furthermore, a former Vice President of the United States and Senator, Hubert Humphrey attended LSU along with Will Wright, creator of the best selling PC Game of all time, The Sims!

There are fifteen colleges or schools on campus at Louisiana State University. These schools and colleges are top ranking across the board. At LSU you can get a degree from the College of Agriculture, the College of Engineering, the College of Art & Design, the College of Human Sciences & Education, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, the College of Music & Dramatic Arts, the College of Science, the E.J. Ourso College of Business, the University College, the Honors College, the Continuing Education school, the Graduate School, the Manship School of Mass Communication, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and the School of Coast & Environment. On campus you will also find two libraries and eight museums.

Greek life is a huge part of Louisiana State University student life. There are thirty-eight organizations on campus governed by the Fraternity Council, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, and the Pan-Hellenic Council. Some of the fraternities on campus are Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Nu, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Pi Kappa Phi. Some of the Sororities on campus are Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Phi Mu, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Delta Gamma. Fraternities and sororities often work together to raise money for local charities or doing volunteer work on community projects, such as building houses for Habitat for Humanity.

Louisiana State University is officially titled Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. It is a coed public university which is located in the heart of downtown Baton Rouge. It opened its doors in 1860 after nearly sixty years of planning. Its original location was in Pineville, Louisiana and it was not until 1869 that the college hit its current location. Currently, LSU spans out across 2,000 acres with 250 buildings making up its campus. These buildings were mostly built between 1925 and 1940 with the Italian Renaissance style design in mind. Fifty-seven of these buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The first building to be erected was the Swine Palace, formerly the livestock barn, which is now the Reilly theater. With the original thought that the campus would hold 1,500 students, much renovation has had to be made in order to accommodate the ever growing student enrollment. Currently there are close to 29,000 undergraduate and post graduate students attending LSU!