The sight of green and gold and the sounds of the Spirit of the Southland Marching Band make it clear: it's gameday in Hammond, America, and there is no shortage of Lion Pride ahead of tonight's big rivalry game.

It's the Southeastern Lions against the Nicholls State Colonels in the Riverbell classic. The goal? Bragging rights for a year.

"It's Nicholls," said die-hard Lions fan Russell Bittola. "They're our rivals and we're going to beat them and that's the way it is. Been here for, I think, it's 18 years now. We've been in the same spot and tailgating every weekend."

There's excitement all over campus. A ticket to see the Lions has been hard to find. They've been nearly sold out all season.

"It's definitely been strong," said Southeastern Senior Chris Arroyo. "Everybody's super eager. Cole Kelley's been doing a great job as quarterback and everyone's just really happy that the atmosphere's strong, the vibe is great, and everyone's really excited the whole season."

"It's always fighting for the next game," said Senior Trinity Brown. "The coaches, the players, they work really hard and I just love being able to come and celebrate with all of my fellow students."

Southeastern is looking to clinch a championship tonight and a ticket to the playoffs.

"When you can win a championship at home those opportunities don't happen a lot," said Athletic Director Jay Artigues. "We have an opportunity to do that in front of our home crowd and we want to take advantage of it, obviously. Playoffs are right around the corner, we put our bid in for that, and the better we do, obviously, on the field the better the opportunities are going to be. This team has a chance to win a conference championship and the aspirations even beyond that."