It would appear that LSU is going to go play at South Carolina every 16 years or so whether the Tigers need to or not. 

Also, keep in mind that the long absence since LSU last visited Columbia — 2008, I guess it was — was before the Southeastern Conference expanded to 16 teams for this year and further complicated the scheduling logistics. 

The last time the Tigers were in the Palmetto State — palmetto being a palm tree of some renown — was four years before Texas A&M and Missouri joined the SEC in 2012. 

Oh, wait. Sorry. There was more at play here than a glitch in a bulky scheduling system. 

LSU was supposed to go to Columbia in 2015, but massive flooding in South Carolina that week forced the game to be played in Baton Rouge at the last minute. 

LSU did it up right to make Tiger Stadium a “home” game for the evacuees. The Golden Band from Tigerland learned the USC alma mater and fight song. They had a few Gamecocks graphical knickknacks painted on the field. 

The press box, as I recall, even borrowed the temporary name plates from Williams-Brice Stadium for you to find your seating spot therein. 

Overkill, perhaps. 

But none of the faux hospitality really fooled anybody and the Tigers won 45-24. 

That’s pretty much been the norm with these teams. LSU has won seven straight, and the two are rare enough bedfellows that you have to go back to the Curley Hallman Era to find an LSU team that lost to the Gamecocks. 

How long? There was tie (go ask your grandfather) more recently (2005) than the Gamecocks’ last win over LSU in 2004. 

Yet, suddenly, the word on the streets is that this year could be different, that this may be a different breed of Gamecocks. 

It looked like business as usual when South Carolina opened the season with a struggle before getting past Old Dominion 23-19. 

But last week the Gamecocks whipped up on Kentucky 31-6. 

So far that’s the lone SEC game that has been played this season and — do the math — it leaves South Carolina alone in first place. They’re pretty danged fired up about it, too. 

It is a bit of an eye-opener. 

Even ESPN’s “College GameDay,” for some reason, is going to Columbia, South Carolina, in advance of an 11 a.m. kickoff to see what all the ruckus is about. 

Or maybe it’s nothing — nothing more than beating Kentucky. 

Keep in mind that it doesn’t take much to get South Carolina fans excited. 

They are good people, Gamecocks fans are. But they are helplessly loyal, naively exuberant and blindly optimistic. 

 They were admitted to the SEC anyway, back in 1992, in the first round of conference expansion.

Whether the “Curse of the Chicken” is real or not, they hardly ever boo the home team.

In fact, after a tough loss they are prone to cheering their downtrodden lads as they exit the field, with the old-fashioned logic that, well, they did their best and, gosh darn it, they tried so dad-blamed hard.

Seriously. That’s how they think.

It used to drive Steve Spurrier crazy when he was coaching there.

He coached to a higher standard, wanted a demanding culture, and he didn’t need any interference from fans who treated it like they were parents at a tee-ball league.

Never mind that it was a long-standing tradition, masquerading as sportsmanship.

He begged them to quit cheering his Gamecocks when they didn’t win. It only encourages mediocrity.

He finally quit the gig in midseason of 2015, just a day or two, in fact, after that “home” loss in Baton Rouge and retired to spend his dotage in Gainesville, Florida, where the fandom knows a perfectly good booing situation when they see it.

So do LSU fans — and if Brian Kelly wants to find out how quickly they can turn on you, just lose to South Carolina on Saturday and see what kind of reception the Tigers get when they return home next week.

Maybe the South Carolina win over Kentucky caught LSU’s eye.

Doing the usual schedule scans in preseason, this didn’t look like a big stop for LSU, certainly not “GameDay”-worthy.

But with LSU’s season-opening loss to “the other USC,” Southern Cal, and a less-than-exhilarating win over Nicholls State, this might loom as the key game in the Tigers’ season.

At the least, a loss here figures to make the perceived marquee games down the road less noteworthy.

In other words, if LSU wants to make something memorable of this season, it needs to get its act together this week, establish its identity for the long haul and come out of South Carolina with a victory.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com