The 2019 LSU Tigers went 15-0 during one of the best seasons in college football history. At the epicenter of that breakout year in the bayou was Joe Burrow, winning the Heisman by a landslide while setting FBS records for both passing touchdowns (60) and passer efficiency rating (202.0) in a single season.

But what if Burrow had stayed at Ohio State instead of entering the transfer portal in May 2018?

As we move through our second month without live sports—and with no end to that drought in sight—let's take a trip down the rabbit hole and into an alternate reality to help pass the time.

The first big unknown is whether Burrow could have had anywhere near that level of success with the Buckeyes, and that's really more a question of opportunity than talent.

We know he could run Urban Meyer's offense. After both the 2017 and 2018 spring games, Burrow's name was the one used in the headline of our recaps. In 2017, he threw for 262 yards and three touchdowns. The following April, he led the way with 238 yards and two scores.

On the one hand, who cares about spring-game stats? But on the other hand, at least he was impressive in those performances, and it's not like we have much other data to consider. He didn't take a single regular-season snap in a game decided by fewer than 33 points during any of his three years in Columbus.

That's because J.T. Barrett was there for each of those three years.

Once Barrett exhausted his eligibility, it (at least externally) looked like a toss-up between Burrow and Dwayne Haskins for the starting gig in 2018. Haskins had a leg up because of his relief performance in the win at Michigan the previous season, but it could have gone either way.

"There wasn't a lot of separation," Ohio State beat reporter Bill Rabinowitz said in a Redskins Talk podcast this January (h/t Ethan Cadeaux of NBC Sports). "They wanted both to stay, but Burrow earned the right to move on [as a graduate transfer]. There were no hard feelings. It was a completely understandable move by all sides. This was a win-win."

Maybe he could have won the job during fall camp. But if he had stayed, he likely would have opened the season as the backup to Haskins. Given how well Haskins played all season, throwing for 50 touchdowns, it's hard to imagine Burrow would have gotten much of a chance to play in 2018.

But here's where the ripple effects kick in: If Burrow had stayed at Ohio State, there's a good chance Tate Martell would have been the Buckeyes quarterback entering the transfer portal in May 2018 instead of waiting until this past January to head to Miami.

And in that scenario, maybe he transfers to California instead?

In the 247Sports crystal ball predictions, 20 percent of voters thought Martell would choose the Golden Bears out of high school, and that team certainly hasn't had a quarterback providing much value in the past couple of years. We've yet to see if he's worthy of the hype he was given as a 4-star recruit, but if he's even half as competent as we were promised and he had been the starter for that 2019 Golden Bears squad, maybe they mess around and win 10 or 11 games.

At the very least, maybe Martell would have ended up somewhere that actually wanted to use him instead of serving as the third-string afterthought for the Hurricanes last year.

Ripple No. 2: If Burrow stays through the 2018 season, he becomes the obvious favorite to start in 2019—so obvious, in fact, that Justin Fields probably doesn't transfer to Ohio State.

Oh, Fields still would have transferred. That dude was not happy with how woefully the Georgia Bulldogs under-utilized him as a true freshman. While Trevor Lawrence was busy leading Clemson to a national championship, Fields basically only saw the field in rushing situations, in garbage time or for a terribly ill-advised fake-punt attempt in the SEC Championship Game.

So where does he end up instead? 

Maybe at Oklahoma?

Fields announced his Ohio State decision 12 days before Jalen Hurts declared his plans to grad-transfer to the Sooners, so that option was at least on the table for Fields. At any rate, ESPN's Mark Schlabach reported in mid-December that Oklahoma was one of the three options Fields was considering. (The further domino to consider then is where Hurts lands, but we've got enough on our plate just trying to work through this rabbit hole.)

One of Fields' other possibilities, of course, was Ohio State. But the third was Florida State, which would have been awesome.

At the time, the Seminoles still had Deondre Francois, a commitment from Sam Howell and James Blackman on the roster. But Francois was dismissed in early February, and Howell ended up decommitting and enrolling (and thriving) at North Carolina instead. (His flip to UNC happened just weeks before Fields chose Ohio State, but it may have been an initial factor that led Fields to lean in the direction of the Buckeyes.)

As a result, the 'Noles were left with Blackman and Wisconsin graduate transfer Alex Hornibrook, which led to a disappointing 6-7 record.

Had Fields chosen Florida State, not only would it have possibly helped save head coach Willie Taggart's job, but it would also have meant guaranteed ACC showdowns between Lawrence and Fields in both 2019 and 2020. Sign us up for that alternate reality, please and thank you.

And while LSU wasn't actually on Fields' radar, in a world in which Burrow stays at Ohio State, perhaps it would have been.

It speaks volumes to both Burrow's talent and how uncertain LSU was about Myles Brennan succeeding in 2018 that Burrow was able to transfer there on May 18 and start the season opener 15 weeks later. Maybe Brennan would have panned out, but there's a strong possibility LSU would have been in the market for a Fields or a Hurts shortly after the 2018 season ended.

If Fields had chosen the Tigers, could he have been as successful as Burrow actually was?

Maybe he wouldn't have been as historically untouchable, but it seems safe to assume Fields would have had a great year.

After all, he was just about flawless through his first 13 games at Ohio State, racking up 40 passing touchdowns, 10 rushing touchdowns and just one interception. Pair him with passing game coordinator Joe Brady and receivers like Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson and there's a good chance he at least still winds up in the Heisman conversation—possibly still finishing behind Burrow, albeit in the opposite uniforms.

Considering three of the four starting quarterbacks in last year's College Football Playoff were former transfers, there are quite a few doesn't-transfer/transfers-elsewhere alternate realities to consider here. But just in the "Burrow stays put" universe, it's hardly a stretch to imagine Burrow leading Ohio State to victory over Clemson to take on Fields and the Bayou Bengals for the national championship.

Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball and college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.