What's a Fan To Do?

Some of you will remember the eZine we published, ULToday.com.

This article from the website puts that Tennessee fiasco in context. It's a bit outdated, and I would write it differently today... but perhaps those who claim we are now a national brand, and will receive fair officiating, will be proven right.

What's a Fan to Do?

For years, Louisiana has been sand-bagged by the NCAA, our Conferences, game officials, and now the Bowls. Is there a conspiracy here?

Not all paranoids are crazy.

Louisiana was just snubbed by the bowls, where we were quite confident that we could get invitations from at least one of them, maybe more than one. And it wasn't just wishful thinking on our part: almost every bowl projection in the media had the Ragin' Cajuns picked to go somewhere.

But come Monday morning, we were shut out. Not only were we shut out; UL finished #2 in the Conference, while FAU who was tied for third in the Sun Belt, and who had only reached .500 with a win over a 1-AA opponent, leap-frogged us to get into the Motor City Bowl. At the same time, in our own state the Shreveport Independence Bowl snubbed the Cajuns, instead taking a 4th place MAC team, Northern Illinois-- also needing a 1-AA win to get to 6-6-- when the Sun Belt Conference had been crowing all year that the SBC had first crack at the bowl. We had also been assured that our supporters in Houston could get us into the bowl there.

Now? The Sun Belt Conference is two-stepping like crazy. The Independence Bowl won't return phone calls. Powerful UL alumni in Houston have egg on their faces. And our fans are howling for someone's head.

Problem is, we can't figure out whose head. And there's the rub.

This isn't the first time the Cajuns have been short-changed; or maybe 'mugged' would be a better word. I am reading Slam Dunked! by former Cajuns basketball coach Beryl Shipley with Ron Gomez, about the 1971-72 and 1972-73 Top 10 Cajuns basketball teams. The NCAA invented a punishment for UL that year, and awarded both Louisiana and Long Beach State the "Death Penalty"-- although it didn't even have a name yet. No basketball was played here for two years. [NB: Kentucky's penalty, before ours, was self-imposed, and did not come from the NCAA.]

As any such book must be, Slam Dunked! presents only one side of the story. But Shipley and Gomez lay out a time-line, and cite numerous documents, that strongly suggest that the NCAA was somewhat less-than-interested in hearing what we had to say, nor even in giving us adequate time to respond.

So we lost our basketball team, and our first claim to national prominence.

Nothing seems to change, however. In 2005, the Cajuns men's basketball team had a stellar year, and our performance suggested that we warranted as high as an 8-seed in the NCAA Regional Tournaments. Astute observers doubted we would get that, but confidently predicted we would be a 10, maybe an 11-seed. We were stunned to receive a 13-seed.

At least, we received a 13-seed on paper.

Because the NCAA then took Louisville-- widely predicted by the media to be a #1 seed, and who in fact made the Final Four-- and put them as a #4 seed. Against Louisiana.

So in effect, the NCAA made UL a 16-seed. A 16-seed-- the slot reserved for the worst of the worst, the dregs who managed to win in the weakest Division 1 conferences in the land. That was our kids' reward for a stellar season.

But the Cajuns were up to the challenge. With 5 minutes to go in the game, UL was leading 55-54. Then the NCAA officials became very active. In the last 5 minutes, the Cardinals were awarded 15 shots from the free throw line. In fact, L'ville didn't make but one field goal in that time, and none after 2 ½ minutes. They didn't need it.

Perhaps at the end of the game, the officials felt guilty, because with 6 seconds left to go, they awarded Louisiana two free throws. So over the last 5 minutes of a great contest before a national audience, the officials gave Louisville 15 free throws to Louisiana's 2. After the game, even some Cardinal fans were admitting that the officials handed the game to Louisville.

But it didn't end there. Responding to a good-faith mistake made by UL on a player's transcript, the NCAA proceeded to void our tournament appearance altogether. Maybe they wanted to erase any record of the fiasco; as Tom Lehrer once quipped, "If something I say offends you, I will not only retract it.

"I will deny having ever said it."

We've had recurrent problems with officiating in our previous NCAA men's hoops appearance. For instance, in 2000 UL faced Tennessee in the opening round, and were threatening to hand the Vols their bright orange hats. With 45 seconds to go, UL was clawing back into the game and cut the UT lead to 2 points.

At that point, the officials-- who over the course of the game awarded the Vols 29 free throws, but let UL take only 8-- proceeded to send the Orange to the stripe for more chances.

On a foul that the NY Times called "questionable," Tennessee went back to the line. The Vols missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the Times notes that "the Cajuns claimed a referee was talking to them during the shot and distracted them from going after the rebound."

Sports Illustrated was not so charitable as the Times, and suggested it was a "phantom foul call." The SI article then goes on to note that immediately after that, on yet another whistle on the Cajuns, even the UT player admitted there was no foul. He had simply slipped.

We've seen strange things with our other sports, as well. In 2005, Cajuns softball amassed an amazing 55-6 regular season tally, and had been ranked in the Top 15 all year.

But the NCAA did not award UL one of the 16 regionals. We were not even assigned a #2 seed. The NCAA gave us a #3 seed in far-away Tucson.

But it didn't stop there. The host, Arizona, was nationally ranked #1. The 2-seed was #10-ranked Oklahoma. Even the ugliest team in the regional, South Carolina, had come out of the SEC, and seemed to be an awfully strong 4-seed. Apparently, the selection committee didn't like any of us.

UL managed to beat every team in the regional, proving that our seed was, in fact, a joke. A sick, sad joke that the NCAA committee decided to play on our girls, and our fans. But the Cajuns efforts weren't enough. In such a top-heavy regional, the #2 seed OU, prevailed and advanced.

In the next year, the NCAA treated our baseball team similarly. At the end of the regular season, we were ranked #14. The NCAA committee awarded regional sites straight down the line, #1 through #16-- with a lone exception.

UL was skipped over, and our regional was handed Creighton. Coastal Carolina, the University of San Diego, they got regionals. UL, with a very strong season, and some of the best attendance figures in the country, was snubbed.

We have also seen these shenanigans from the state Legislature. At times, we saw them with the Southland Conference, and we have suspected that something is odoriferous with the Sun Belt.

And now, we are looking at patent dishonesty from the bowl committees.

What's going on here? Is there a conspiracy to keep UL down?

It seems hard to imagine. Who has the clout to influence the NCAA committees, the NCAA officials, two different conferences, and the bowls? And even if someone had that much influence-- why would they waste their time on little ol' UL??

I've been mulling that over (yes, I admit it) for years. When you see a pattern with no clear unifying motivator, it's just puzzling. And I think I have finally figured it. We can't prove there is a conspiracy, but there is one constant.

And the constant is us.

Under the previous administration, UL's strategy was "If we work hard and produce, we'll be rewarded." To be fair, it wasn't a complete failure. UL has accomplished amazing things in 35 years.

But the problem was, when we got the shaft we never complained. So, while we were competitive-- apparently, highly competitive-- on the arena, off the sand? We were doormats.

Everyone quickly learned that you could abuse the Ragin' Cajuns-- in sports, in government, in research grants, in the media-- and no one would say a word.

So we march onto the field of play, chests full, heads high, we compete, and we win. But the rest of the time, we're the sniveling weakling in the corner that everyone despises, the cur that everyone curses, and the object that everyone objects to.

To be fair, that "Work > reward" model has a not-so-obvious benefit: because UL didn't call on help from powerful parties, we currently enjoy a degree of administrative autonomy that very few schools can claim. We don't need to look beyond Louisiana and our neighboring states to find frightening examples of berserk alumni, who not only meddle in athletics, but interfere with the administration, academics, and even with undergraduate organizations. In those schools, powerful alumni and supporters frequently make a mockery of everything a University stands for, and is.

So that's my take. If I'm, then what's a fan to do?

Well, I think our Legislators are off to a very good start. We need to stand up, and start demanding our due. We need to use eMail, and phones, and blogs, and message boards, and letters-to-the-editor, to rally our troops, and keep this issue on the front burner.

For a long, long time.

We need our state and national officials to know that we want them to keep the pressure up. We need to make sure the taxpayers in Shreveport and Houston become aware that they just lost a huge economic boost to their economies. They need to know that would have easily brought 20,000 people either bowl, who would have rented thousands of hotel rooms, and eaten tens of thousands of meals at restaurants.

Correction: at good restaurants. We're Cajuns. We don't eat fast food garbage when we're celebrating.

We want people to know that if they don't treat the Ragin' Cajuns right, there's going to be hell to pay.

So let's make some noise. eMail your UL friends & supporters and invite them to read this article. Then let's all start complaining, to the media, the politicians, and our powerful supporters.

Because the fact is, there really hasn't been much "Rage" here. Cajuns & Creoles are pretty laid back people.

Until you reach our limit.

I think we just may be there. It looks like it's time we began validating the 'raging' in 'Ragin' Cajuns'.