When the Ohio State Buckeyes play the LSU Tigers tonight in New Orleans, the Tigers will have as close to what could be considered home-field advantage as possible in a national championship game. Probably to do with this, many are picking the Tigers to win, but not all.

Will LSU be able to take advantage of the ‘home’ crowd? To do so with maximum effect would be to jump out to an early lead, as not only would the crowd go crazy, but there would be the added effect of reminding the Ohio State players of last year’s debacle when Florida beat them in this same game. If the Tigers can get into the heads of those players whose psyches are still damaged from last year, it could be the difference in the game.

Last year, Florida used four and five wideout sets to spread the Buckeyes defense out and then executed a perfect game plan to perfection in beating the zone defense schemes that coach Tressel had his team playing. Florida did not win simply because they were faster, they won because QB Chris Leak played a very accurate passing game and hit his receivers almost flawlessly in the soft zones of the coverage. While Tigers QB Matt Flynn is more mobile than Leak was, he does not possess the same accurate arm and we’ll probably see Tigers coach Les Miles use backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux at times (especially in the red zone) to keep the Buckeyes defense on their toes.

The Yardstick for the BCS National Championship game calls for a five-point Tigers victory. Join FanYard now and become a piece of the Yardstick for this game today.