Baton Rouge What!?!

So I saw this story on MSN (The Best Sports Cities in America: 1-400) and decided to check it out. So I'm scrolling through the list (which has close to 400 cities listed) and when I read entry #41, I kind of do that whole double-take thing because it says "BATON ROUGE, LA.". So I'm sitting there and I'm thinking... how in the world does Baton Rouge merit such a high spot in such an extensive list when we have absolutely no pro teams, no semi-pro teams, nothing even considered pro anywhere within a 50 mile radius (do the saints really count as pro? New Orleans is ranked 22nd... the Hornets and Voodoo have redeemed that city). Anyways... so in my quest to find out the reasoning such an honor has been bestowed upon us... just a mere college town... I am happy to report that we are no mere college town.. but the supreme college town. Did I mention that when its Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, the population of the stadium alone (not including the bajillion tailgaters outside) is more than 62 of the parishes *counties* in Louisiana?!?
WHERE DO ALL THE PEOPLE COME FROM!!!


92,000 of my best friends; Tiger Stadium
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Fox Sports reports the following after a year long study of 400 cities that Baton Rouge is:

The Best of College Football

No, no, no, you misunderstood. When the Sporting News crowned Southern California as its national champion after the 2003 college football season, it was a mistake. OK, actually the mistake was when we inadvertently sent a USC-based cover into parts of Louisiana. If we needed proof of an entire state's passion, its energies focused on one team in one city, then LSU fans gave it to us.

Boy, did they give it to us.

E-mail. Phone calls. Letters. We got an idea of what opponents feel like when stadium public-address announcer Dan Borne says, "It's Saturday Night in Death Valley, and here come your Fighting Tigers of LSU."

Sellout (91,600 plus) after raucous sellout, and a BCS championship victory down the road in New Orleans, too, mean one thing in our Best Sports City rankings: Baton Rouge is No. 1.

Really.