Chick-fil-A Bowl a 'chicken issue' for LSU's Les Miles

• No. 7 LSU and No. 13 Clemson will face off in the Chick-fil-A Bowl
• Les Miles is spokesman for rival Chick-fil-A rival Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers
• Joking aside, Miles and Raising Cane's owner do not see a conflict of interest

No. 7 LSU (10-2) and No. 13 Clemson (10-2) play at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta's Georgia Dome on ESPN.

Winner, winner gets a chicken dinner. Of course, loser, loser gets one, too.

"Everywhere you look, there are ice chests full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches for us," said LSU senior offensive tackle Josh Dworaczyk, who also played for the Tigers in the 2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl. "You can eat as many Chick-fil-A sandwiches as you could possibly want."

For LSU football coach Les Miles and his family, the poultry dinner of choice, however, is Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers – a Baton Rouge based fast food restaurant with 146 locations in 17 states that was founded by and is owned and operated by Baton Rouge native Todd Graves.

In commercials and on billboards, Miles has been the spokesman for Raising Cane's since 2008 – not long after he and his Tigers won the 2007 BCS national championship. He and all the Miles' fingers – wife Kathy and four children - have been eating Raising Cane's since their arrival at LSU in 2005.

For the third time in his eight seasons as LSU's coach, though, Miles finds himself in the Atlanta bowl sponsored by Chick-fil-A, a competitor of Raising Cane's with 1,600 locations in 38 states in the same basic fast food item conference, you might say, if not the same dietary division.

"There's going to be a lot of chicken going on at that stadium, and it's not going to be Raising Cane's chicken," Graves said jokingly on WAFB Channel 9 in Baton Rouge. "When the Chick-fil-A invited LSU, naturally I thought Les would turn it down."

It's the chicken game of the century. Graves plans on being there to see LSU win by "10 points at least," he said, but he will not be taking part in any Chick-fil-A dining.

"I wouldn't want someone to take a picture of me eating Chick-fil-A," he said.

For LSU's head football rooster, though, a conflict of chicken interest, if you will, is on the table.

"I have a chicken issue," Miles said shortly after the bowl pairings were announced early this month.

"As you guys know, I'm having a real conflict," Miles said last week before the team left for Atlanta.

"I've already had some," he said when asked if had partaken of the Chick-fil-A sandwich. "I understand the sensitivity that Todd (Graves) can have, and I as well. It's hard on me as well."

Later, Miles broke down the Raising Cane's-Chick-fil-A comparison as objectively as he could as if he was one of the analysts on College GameDay. He touched on the advertising characters of each as well – a yellow Labrador retriever called Raising Cane II barking for fingers as his "One Love" and the Chick-fil-A cows pleading for people to "Eat Mor Chikin."

"I understand it completely," Miles began. "The only thing I can tell you is I like the SWEET TEA and the SECRET SAUCE (at Raising Cane's) that they have that just kind of gets me. I'm kind of partial to the chicken, too. I do understand the thing that the OTHER chicken group represents. I understand why cows would be for eating chickens."

A reporter pointed out that Raising Cane's serves Texas toast while Chick-fil-A does not.

"I know," Miles said. "I'm glad you brought that up. And understand this, there are some things about this state. Chicken in this state is better, just so you know. And, oh yeah, me and Cane."

Miles is pictured on billboards high fiving fist to paw with Cane II, a 13-year-old yellow lab who followed the late and original Raising Cane I.

"It's a relationship over time that we have," Miles said.

And money. Miles is paid handsomely by Raising Cane's. But seriously, Graves does not see a real conflict of interest. Chick-fil-A advertises with LSU and has cow drops at LSU basketball games with the lucky catchers winning free Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

And nothing in Miles' contract with Raising Cane's prohibits him from ingesting Chick-fil-A or coaching in events sponsored by Chick-fil-A.

"He can eat at Chick-fil-A's," Graves said. "And I wouldn't be upset if he did, but he does have chicken exclusivity with us as far as advertising. He can't pitch another chicken establishment. If he was approached to do that, I'm sure he'd tell me about it. Everything with Les is a handshake. "

Even if Miles, his family, the Tigers or Tiger fans wanted Raising Cane's fingers after the game, they would have to drive an hour to get it. Graves' only restaurant in Georgia is in Athens on the Georgia campus, where Graves graduated in telecommunications in 1994. He opened his first Raising Cane's just past the gates of LSU in 1996.

The state of Georgia's primary chicken finger establishment at the moment is Zaxby's.

"Zaxby's, not Chick-fil-A would be our Alabama, our true rival," Graves said.

At the moment, there is no Zaxby's Bowl.

Glenn Guilbeau writes for Gannett Louisiana