What do tigers dream of? Yes, there will be a real tiger at LSU vs. Alabama

From the "only in college football" department: Yes, LSU will have a live tiger mascot on the field at Death Valley for the team's Saturday night showdown against Alabama, but no, it won't be the team's actual live tiger mascot. What a beautiful sport.

For those just joining this story, allow us to explain. Yes, LSU does have a live tiger mascot, a tradition that began with a student-led fundraiser all the way back in 1935. The current tiger's name is Mike (technically Mike VII) and he lives on campus, where he's cared for by staffers at the university's veterinary school. But unlike his predecessors, Mike VII has never appeared at Tiger Stadium for a game. The Tigers haven't had a live tiger appear since 2015, over concerns about the stress of putting a shy and usually solitary jungle cat in the middle of 100,000+ screaming fans.

That hasn't stopped state politicians from trying to bring the tradition back, however. It started earlier this year, when Louisiana governor Jeff Landry unreservedly threw his support behind the idea of Mike on the sidelines. After university officials and animal welfare experts pushed back on the idea, Landry and others pivoted to a new idea: Finding a different tiger and bringing that one to a game. And after much deliberation, they appear to have found their cat.

A different live tiger mascot will be at Death Valley for LSU vs. Alabama

According to a report from LouisianaSports.net, the school has arranged for another tiger to be on the sideline for LSU's huge matchup against rival Alabama on Saturday night.

“As you would expect, it would be very difficult to be able to try to move Mike out of an area he’s never been out of,” Landry told the New Orleans Advocate in an interview Thursday.

The new tiger's name is Omar Bradley, and he comes from a wildlife refuge in Florida; what a tiger from Florida would know about LSU football I have no idea, but that's beside the point right now. When asked about the issue ahead of this weekend's matchup, LSU head coach Brian Kelly would say only "I'm a huge tiger fan," a pivot that would make even the most seasoned of politicians blush.

To be clear, experts still don't think that putting any tiger in this sort of situation is a good idea.

“Whatever was done before – we know better now, and we know it’s not a good idea to put a tiger in that situation,” Catherine Doyle, director of Science, Research and Advocacy at the Performing Animal Welfare Society, said. “There would be no reputable place to get a tiger to use for this purpose.”

But what's done is done, and if LSU is able to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive with a big win over a hated rival (and send Alabama into an existential crisis to boot), Omar might be sticking around for a while.