LAS VEGAS — When I told my brother Jeff that the newspaper wanted me to write a piece in preparation for Sunday’s LSU-Southern California game, he gave me some sage advice:

“Go to the Bellagio fountain,” he said, “and wait for an LSU fan to jump in.”

He was only half joking.

The weekend has only just begun, but Saturday afternoon I couldn’t help but find an LSU fan who had made a fool of himself in front of the hotel and casino’s famous fountain because he had lost a bet before Vegas (more on him later).

That an LSU fan in Las Vegas would pay a bad bet was almost certain given the number of fans there. As they say in Vegas, the odds were in favor of such an event.

The LSU faithful like to call Omaha, Nebraska, Alex Box likes to call North, because many of them flock there for the College World Series every time the Tigers play. Well, with apologies to West Baton Rouge Parish, Las Vegas could be called Baton Rouge West this weekend.

This is the trip that LSU fans have been waiting for forever, I imagine, and many of them didn’t miss the chance to be here for the show. There are people dressed in purple everywhere, filling the hotels, restaurants, casinos and bars in a city that’s more than willing to suck up every dollar they’re willing to leave behind.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Southwest Airlines has added 56 flights this season for college football games alone. Twenty-four of those flights were to/from Las Vegas for this game. Many of them, like my connecting flight from Atlanta to Vegas on Friday night, were substantially populated by LSU folks, I’m sure.

And for the fans of USC, whose Trojans play the Tigers on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, here’s my honest count of how many fans I saw between 9 a.m. Saturday morning and the time I sat down to write this column at 3:30 p.m.: Four.

No, really. Four. Obviously, not every USC fan here is decked out head to toe in cardinal and gold. But to say that LSU fans clearly outnumbered USC fans here Saturday, 10 to 1, 20 to 1, is not an exaggeration.

Michael Palmer of St. George watched the sea of ​​LSU fans fill the vast sportsbook at Caesars Palace and reveled in LSU’s dominance.

“There’s no purple jersey for sale in this city,” Palmer said. “It’s unfortunate that so many USC fans don’t have the means to travel to Las Vegas.”

USC fans will undoubtedly show up at some point before kickoff. The drive from Los Angeles to Vegas takes about the same amount of time as the drive from Baton Rouge to Gulf Shores, Alabama, and is likely a trip that Southern Californians make just as often.

Who knows how the game will play out? LSU has lost four straight openers to begin the season, the Tigers’ worst streak since losing five in a row from 1991-95. With 24 hours to go until kickoff, LSU was just a 4.5-point favorite over USC, down from a 6½-point pick with Vegas oddsmakers when the betting lines were released earlier this year.

“It would be nice to start 1-0,” Covington’s Brett Borne said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

There is no doubt that the Tigers clearly won the pre-game festivities.

They started early, in every LSU-related sense of the word. Broussard father-son duo Tommy and Trey Smith were perched on barstools in the Harrah’s sportsbook at 9 a.m., each nursing a beer as the day’s first college football games began (gotta love the Pacific time zone).

“At $25 for two beers,” said Trey Smith, “we drink slow.”

The thrill of winning the first game of the season was reserved for another team for at least one day.

Back to the Bellagio fountain, which is marked with large green signs every 15 yards or so that read “No Swimming.”

LSU fan Ethan Stock of Dallas had no plans to violate that local law. He had other obligations.

According to what we’ll call our… ahem… friends for now, Stock finished last in their fantasy football league last season.

“He had two wins in the whole season,” said Sam Boutte of Lafayette.

Stock’s punishment for such ineptitude as a football manager? He had to stand in front of the Bellagio fountain for four hours, do a live Instagram show and play a whistle (those little plastic whistles kids learn to play in school). He wore an LSU jersey, a purple floppy hat — at least his “friends” protected Stock from the blazing Nevada sun — and a sign around his neck that read, “Don’t tip, I (stink) like fantasy football.”

I threw a dollar in his floppy purple hat anyway. The poor guy deserved some kind of reward for making himself the laughing stock of the Las Vegas Strip all afternoon.

Stock still managed to get a few “Geaux Tigers!” in between the laughter as LSU fans, in their legions, walked by.

I imagine Stock was happy to lose his fantasy football league, and a little bit of his pride, if it means LSU can pull off a crucial win on Sunday.