influence on the refs, as determined by academic studies on the subject. The louder and more boisterous and more one-sided the crowd is, the more measurably biased the refereeing is. Here is one study:

http://freakonomics.com/2011/12/18/football-freakonomics-how-advantageous-is-home-field-advantage-and-why/

" In Scorecasting, Moscowitz and Wertheim compile data to test a variety of popular theories. You might be surprised (and maybe even disappointed) to read their conclusion:

"'When athletes are at home, they don’t seem to hit or pitch better in baseball … or pass better in football...We checked “the vicissitudes of travel” off the list. And although scheduling bias against the road team explains some of the home-field advantage, particularly in college sports, it’s irrelevant in many sports.

"So if these popular explanations don’t have much explanatory power for home-field advantage, what does?

"In a word: the refs. Moscowitz and Wertheim found that home teams essentially get slightly preferential treatment from the officials, whether it’s a called third strike in baseball or, in soccer, a foul that results in a penalty kick.

"Moscowitz and Wertheim also make clear, however, an important nuance: official bias is quite likely involuntary.

"What does this mean? It means that officials don’t consciously decide to give the home team an advantage — but rather, being social creatures (and human beings) like the rest of us, they assimilate the emotion of the home crowd and, once in a while, make a call that makes a whole lot of close-by, noisy people very happy."

So in terms of the factor that studies show matters most in terms of home-field advantage, this will be a home game for LSU.