It’s an awkward situation, no question.

Maybe schools that play the service academies regularly get used to it.

But, be honest, when Army runs out on the Tiger Stadium turf Saturday night, even LSU fans might have mixed emotions.

Where do you draw the line between purple-and-gold love and stars-and-stripes allegiance?

So, anyway, my good friend Scott Rabalais, a Baton Rouge sports columnist, took to his pulpit this week with an interesting suggestion for LSU fans.

Rab, as we call him in the press box, is as nice a guy as you ever want to meet.

Maybe too nice in this case.

In lieu of booing the U.S. Military Academy team that takes the field, Rab has suggested “polite applause” or, at worst, being “respectfully silent.”

Forgive him, he means well.

But he may be misguided.

It’s just a football game, the Army, our Army, won’t be invading Omaha Beach Saturday.

But that’s not the point.

Yes, we all know what they’ve signed up for, what possible perils await them beyond football and graduation. There could be a lot more on the line for them — and we civilians — than getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.

You have to respect that. Honor that.

LSU head coach Brian Kelly has more experience with this sort of thing than most at LSU from his days at Notre Dame, which traditionally plays the service academies.

“Saturday is their best day,” Kelly said of the Cadets. “Monday through Friday is really hard. Saturday is kind of a day off for them.

“They train hard, they work hard to go to class. Saturdays are the days they enjoy.”

In other words, they can be full-time football players for a day, briefly getting away from the academic version of boot camp.

I can’t speak for the Army football players, but this type of proposed fan benevolence has been attempted before, even though the only other LSU-Army football game was played in 1931 at West Point, a 20-0 victory for the Cadets. LSU has never played Air Force or Navy.

But in 2004, another Army team was shipped down to the NCAA Baseball Regional at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium, where, as the No. 4 seed, they opened the tournament against the top-seeded Tigers.

As I recall, that week it was Baton Rouge talk radio in the days leading up to the game that started beating the drums for LSU baseball fans, just this once, to cease and desist the usual hijinks.

The day before the game, as the Cadets were getting acquainted with Alex Box Stadium, Army head coach Joe Sotolano chatted with the Louisiana media. He was told that Alex Box, for whom the stadium was named, was a former LSU football and baseball player who was also junior class president before he left school for World War II and was killed fighting in North Africa. He made a note to pass on to his team.

He was also told about the local move afoot to spare his Cadets the normal jeering and heckling from The Box.

He said that was fine and dandy of them and he sure appreciated it. But he pointed out that for the game — as opposed to the everyday grind of the academy — this weekend they were first and foremost baseball players and would prefer to be viewed as such.

That meant, as he put it, they wanted “The full Alex Box treatment.” They knew all about the place, one of the shrines of the college sport they normally played in front of a smattering of friends and family. They couldn’t wait to experience it. Relished the notion.

LSU won the game 9-0 and the Cadets survived the ordeal with no demerits or demotions.

As fans of college football all, no doubt, have heard the raucous tales of Tiger Stadium. Four on the Army roster are listed from the Baton Rouge area, two others from Louisiana.

They know the drill.

Truth be told, few 30-point underdog visitors truly get to experience the “full Tiger Stadium treatment.” That’s reserved for the Alabamas and Texas A&Ms of the world.

So I say go ahead, boo the Cadets. It’s not unpatriotic. It’s the respect Army football players deserve. Anything less would be condescending to our country’s future leaders, the best and brightest and toughest.

•

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