NEW ORLEANS — Well past midnight, Les Miles wanted to make one more stop.

So when the LSU coach left the Superdome, he made a beeline for Bourbon Street. With his wife, he climbed onto a crowded hotel balcony, hoisted a glittering trophy and gave it a kiss.

Let others claim they could’ve won the crystal football that goes to the BCS national champion. No matter, it belongs to his Tigers.

Matt Flynn threw four touchdown passes and LSU made it look easy Monday night with a 38-24 win over No. 1 Ohio State, turning the title game into a horrible replay for the Buckeyes.

Now the debate begins: Is LSU tops?

“Certainly there will be some argument as to who’s the best team. But I think the national champion has been crowned tonight,” Miles said. “I have to give great credit to some divine intervention that allows us to be in this position.”

In a season of surprises, this was hardly an upset: Ohio State again fell apart in college football’s biggest game, having lost 41-14 to Florida last year in the Arizona desert.

But this was unprecedented. Playing at their home-away-from-home in the Big Easy, the Tigers (12-2) became the first two-loss team to compete for the title.

Still, LSU was a runaway No. 1 in the final Associated Press poll. The Tigers received 60 of 65 first-place votes from a national media panel. Georgia, Southern California, Missouri and Ohio State rounded out the top five. Georgia had three first-place votes while Southern California and No. 7 Kansas each had one.

The top six teams in the final AP poll all had two losses and Kansas had one.

Miles received a phone call from President Bush on Tuesday morning, then went to a hotel ballroom to accept LSU’s trophies.

“It’s nice that there’s no indecision,” he said. “It’s one national champion.”

And it was one wild ride on Bourbon Street several hours earlier, when bunches of reveling fans were surprised to see Miles on a second-floor balcony around 1 a.m.

“There was a time when I thought, as a young man, that would be a great crowd to be in. Right now, I’m glad I was out of the crowd.”

At the outset Monday, it looked as if the night might be belong to Ohio State (11-2).