• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 28, 2009

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Today, there will be a big game at Tiger Stadium.

For whom the LSU-Arkansas game is big is where the story is a bit fuzzy.

That’s because in the closing weeks for most major college football teams, motivations become more and more esoteric.

For most, their conference championship dreams are over. For all but a select few — Alabama, Florida and Texas with some others holding out hope — a national championship is now unattainable.

For these teams, LSU and Arkansas among them, the motivations run the gamut.

This time of year, you see some teams simply play out the string (see LSU, 2008). Others find something to rally around and put out efforts like they still have a championship to play for.

If this were any other sport, a game like 8-3 LSU vs. 7-4 Arkansas might have all kinds of obvious motivations. This could be a game for a berth in a playoff, depending on how many teams were allowed in a playoff field. Which means, there would be national championship implications.

It’s why college basketball is usually more fun to me than football.

But this isn’t about why college football needs a playoff. Let’s talk about the reality of the now instead.

Because there is no playoff, this isn’t a big game in the big picture. The winner probably gets to the Cotton Bowl, the loser to something lesser.

So what?

None of the potential bowls are in the BCS, and even if one could get to the Sugar Bowl, it wouldn’t be for the national championship anyway.

So what’s on the line?