LSU athletic director Joe Alleva has already had to back off of his original marching orders about this week’s LSU-Alabama game.

In the heat of the moment following a classic Tiger Stadium night in LSU’s 10-7 upset of Ole Miss, Alleva was contemplating the $5,000 fine the school would have to pay to the SEC after the student section rushed the field in the postgame celebration.

“I hope I have to spend it again two weeks from now,” he said in the afterglow.

That has since been amended to a more politically correct version, properly sanitized to where Alleva now urges fans to “celebrate great LSU victories within the seating areas of the stadium, and not on the field …We would never endorse the ‘storming of the field’ by our fans. It is a violation of the protocol established by the Southeastern Conference, and …”

And it went on with much more conference-approved rhetoric.

But you get the picture. Being a carefully worded official statement released by the school, it’s hard to tell if Alleva was wink-winking at the fans who turned Tiger Stadium into a sonic cauldron during the upset the Rebels.

But head coach Les Miles can’t wait to see what kind of ruckus is raised next when the Crimson Tide rolls into the joint for Saturday night’s game.

He didn’t even feel the need to exhort the fans on Monday at his weekly press luncheon, a staple when he thinks the fandom needs a little prodding to get to get to full throat.

This week he knows he only needs to sit back and wait.

But Ole Miss had to be the nation’s No. 3-ranked team to warrant the full “Death Valley” treatment.

Alabama just has to be Alabama.

That Ole Miss upset, which went right down to the wire, was the first real sound check of the stadium with the new south end zone upper deck in place.

General consensus: it holds the noise even better in what has always been known as one of, if not the, loudest college football venues.

Miles can only imagine what it will be like this week.

“Our football team seems to play biggest on the big stage,” he said, “and we’ll look forward to getting to Tiger Stadium and allowing that fan base to rock the place, make a lot of noise, stay late, eat concessions.

“Our team plays best in Tiger Stadium. It’s a magical place. There’s no better place in America to watch a football game. CBS primetime (7 p.m. kickoff) audience. I think our guys will look forward to playing.”

CBS must agree.

With first pick of SEC games each week, it’s the eighth consecutive year the network has picked the Tide and Tigers and the fourth year in a row that it’s secured a prime time spot for the madness.

Two years ago might have been Tiger Stadium at its pre-expansion best. Even though the favored Tide rallied in the final minute to pull off a 21-17 comeback, it was the kind of electric night that Miles knows he doesn’t have to beg for this week.

Longtime ESPN commentator Scott Van Pelt was there two years ago — his first-ever trip to Tiger Stadium — and still talks about it.

“For three hours on Saturday Night, I don’t know that there has ever been an atmosphere in SPORTS that I’ve been a part of that was as memorable to me,” he said on his national radio show the next week.

He went on to add, “Ya’ll (LSU fans) did it as good as it could be done and you didn’t win, but it didn’t mean that you didn’t win in a way because that environment is just, there is nothing beyond it. There is nothing I would put ahead of that that I’ve ever seen in any sport.”

Miles expects nothing less this Saturday against the No. 4-ranked Tide (7-1, 4-1 SEC) arrives again, still very much in the thick of the College Football Playoff race.

Alabama, a 9-point favorite going into that LSU heartbreaker two years ago, is currently a 6 1/2 point favorite this week.

It likely would have been more a few weeks ago before LSU, after an 0-2 start in the SEC, reeled off three straight conference victories.

“It’s an opportunity to continue to show improvement,” Miles said. “Continue to take a step … to enjoy the excitement of yet another big game in Tiger Stadium.

“It’s the kind of game that you come to LSU to play in.”(American Press Archives)

Bill Haber