But being in a position to and having hosted a conference championship is not . . .
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Now, we say "Come play for an SBC Championship".
As an Indy, we would say "Come play a P5 Schedule against the best, prove yourself, play for a National Championship".
I don't know about any of you, but nothing gets my juices going as a Cajun fan as much as playing against a P5. It's the essence of our "Respect" motif we've had for decades.
I think you may be right crawfish! I met Turbine several years ago and he really is a good guy. But like many on social media, I'm sure he needs to continue getting clicks on this site in order for it to remain viable. This has to be what Turbine is doing because I refuse to admit that he is that ill informed to really believe going "independent" is the path to financial success for UL! I know Dr. Maggard is too smart of a man to pass up a sure financial wind fall for UL if that was actually the case.
Turbine, by making UL going independent your "bell cow" on this forum you really are smarter than I thought! That is a brilliant play my man!
Then why did they go back into a conference? If being independent was working, and would CONTINUE to work for them in the future, why stop being an independent? And if you need to "step out to step back in" you're admitting being in a conference is the ultimate goal.
It's not a matter of Conference/No Conference.
It is a matter of "What Conference" and doing everthing in your power to stand out.
BYU would have never gone back to the WAC or back to the Mountain West.
For UL, being independent can generate more money than SunBelt membership, but being independent can't generate more money than being in the Big-12.
You don't go independant to live there forever, and you don't go there out of dire straights. You go there to make more money, set yourself apart, get noticed, become first on everyone's lips, when it comes to conference expansion.
Administrators view it as to much work, that's why it will never happen and that's why you can't trust what an administrator says on the subject. They will never admit they love the conference scheduling Wednesday night games for them more than they love putting in the effort.
Being in a high paying conference is the ultimate goal. Not a conference that pays you $333,333 for a home game.
Stop it!!! No way in hell we'd walk away from a top 5 baseball conference so we can go indy for 1 sport......also be gift wrapping a spot in belt for LTURd. F that scheist.
Not so sure about that.
Play 6 P5 schools, 2 for 1 series for starters. But, we could never get P5 school to come here, as you say. Yet, look at what some of our contemporaries are scheduling OOC and tell me we can't schedule.
Easy to schedule 5 G5 and 1 FCS schools for 4-5 Home games. And, play them on Saturdays instead of Tuesday or Wednesday nights with no attendance. What would that do for attendance, for stadium revenue, for a change in perception by our fans, and for enhancing our national brand?
With the buyout money from Florida and over $1.25M in salary savings, we could invest in our own streaming media production. As Cajun Nation pointed out, we could also create our own Bowl game or garner our own tie-in to a current Bowl.
Why would scheduling 6 P5 games be a problem. That's 65+ schools looking to fill 3-4 games a year OOC. And several are playing away games in 30,000 seat stadiums, e.g. UNC v. App State. And we have a 41,000+ seat stadium. So we need 6 games out of roughly 250 P5 games and 6 games out of 300 G5 and FCS games. We are building a national brand after beating Iowa State, going 13-1 last year along with the success we have had over the past 4 years under Napier.
Scheduling 6 games vs. G5 schools would be a no-brainer Home and Home. We should easily be able to schedule 4-5 home games, giving us a total of 6 Saturday games at home.
Stay in the SBC and will only be an SBC school playing before 20,000 fans or less with weekday games with no attendance and in a lower level bowl game. Go Independent, defeat a couple of P5 schools and we move up in the college football hierarchy. Fans aren't interested in seeing us play GA Southern, S. Alabama, GA State or ULM. And, these games do nothing to expand our brand.
What kind of revenue could we generate from such a scenario vs. the $2M from the SBC? Would this generate more excitement towards stadium completion? All of this is with understanding that it is intended to move us up to a P5 level conference as it has done for Cincy, Houston and UCF. The SEC and B1G may be close to being settled, but the Big 12, Pac 12 and ACC are not. Remember, the Big 12 looks at Brand and Geography, not markets. We have the perfect geography. We need to more develop our national brand. We were a Top 25 team the last couple of years. We have the right start, but need a quicker and better development.
Louisiana - Plays at Florida State & Rice and hosts SE Louisiana, E. Michigan
App State - Hosts N. Carolina and plays at Texas A&M
Marshall - Plays at Notre Dame
Coastal - Hosts Army and plays at Virginia
GA State - Hosts North Carolina plays at South Carolina and Army
ODU - Hosts VA Tech and plays at Virginia and E. Carolina
Troy - Hosts Army and plays at Ole Miss
USM - Plays at Miami
USA - Plays at UCLA
Texas State - Plays at Baylor
Ark State - Plays at Ohio State and Memphis
ULM - Plays at Texas and Army
E. Carolina - Hosts NC State and plays at BYU
New Mexico State - Hosts Nevada and plays at Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri
UCONN - Hosts Syracuse and plays at Michigan, NC State, Boston College and Army
UAB - Plays at LSU
UTSA - Hosts Houston and plays at Army and Texas
WKU - Plays at Indiana and Auburn
FAU - Hosts UCF and plays at Purdue
Charlotte - Hosts Maryland
LA Tech - Plays at Missouri and Clemson
Central Michigan - Plays at OK State and Penn State
Western Michigan - Hosts Pittsburg and plays at Michigan State
Miami (Ohio) - Hosts Cincinnati and plays at Kentucky and Northwestern
Kent State - Plays at Washington, Oklahoma and Georgia
Ohio - Plays at Penn State and Iowa State
Bowling Green - Plays at UCLA and Miss State
Akron - Plays at Michigan State and Tennessee