Champions Square

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Originally Posted by RougaWhite&Blue

I wonder if the cajuns play major college softball in his opinion?

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In my opinion, college softball, yes.

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Originally Posted by cajun55

This is the mentality and biggest issue from the community in Acadiana towards UL. This guy just summed up our problem in five words, it's like if your not in the SEC you are not a major college.

THEY ARE CLUELESS WHAT WE HAVE HERE IN LAFAYETTE and what we can be going forward. Small-minded attitude. No one wants to build anything, just want to ride the coat tails of a perceived "MAJOR" college.

This is partly the Universities fault for not advertising our strengths and getting people to notice our achievements, but at some point the community needs to step up and own what has been built here for 125 years. We are the second largest public university in the state, one of only 3 R1 schools (Tulane, UL, LSU) with very good academics and very good athletics.

Honestly all we lack is the proper fan support in the area to get to the next level. That's on the community for not embracing it's own, a community that supposedly prides itself on it's unique culture yet can't support the school with the cultures name on it and history behind it!

I'm not defending the administration either, a ton needs to be done on that end, but it all starts and ends with the people that live in the area, especially alumni.

I've lived and traveled around the country and been to most of the "Major" colleges. Only thing separating us is the mentality that we are not "Major".

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I was referring to Louisiana football. The truth hurts sometimes.

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Originally Posted by lafman1

I was referring to Louisiana football. The truth hurts sometimes.

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So when we had consecutive top 25 seasons what kind of football were we playing?

Do we have to have a certain number of fans at the games for it to be Major in your opinion? Tell us what the threshold is please.

IF you want to say the gameday atmosphere is not "Major" of course I would agree with that but at the end of the day that is up to the community not the quality of play on the field. Seems to me if it's not P5, it's not Major in your opinion. So we can only be Major in football if we play in one of the top 5 conferences?

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Originally Posted by lafman1

I was referring to Louisiana football. The truth hurts sometimes.

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So answer this, if we did what Tulane did last year or qualified for the top 12 playoff that is coming up would we then be major in your mind or would we need to move up to a P5 conference to be major? Or is it just the overall gameday atmosphere?

I think UL has about 10-15k "loyal" fans that consider gameday a "can't miss" event

Then probably another 5-10k of alumni, people who grew up going with their parents, etc., who would love to attend if schedule allows it, but probably can't make more than a game or two each year

Then maybe 500? 1k students? that attend each game..

That's probably your fanbase as it currently stands..

LSU's fanbase is statewide -- same way Louisiana adopts the Saints, Pelicans, Astros, etc from across the state. UL does not, and likely will not, have that luxury of picking up casual fans in Shreveport, New Orleans, etc.

The only other group that you can pull from are the people in the Acadiana area that are present at every Festival International (300k+ over three or four days), Festival Acadiens (50k estimated - 2022), Mardi Gras (12k per mile - 2017), etc.

Now... all of these events are free, but the community has demonstrated that a free event where you can pass a good time, drink some beer, eat good food, listen to music, etc.. They'll come to that in the thousands. That's what tailgating has to be. The "thing" that's going on for 5-6 Saturdays a year where people go.

Then your challenge is to convince them that the party in the parking lot will keep rolling if they buy a ticket and come inside.

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Originally Posted by cajun55

So answer this, if we did what Tulane did last year or qualified for the top 12 playoff that is coming up would we then be major in your mind or would we need to move up to a P5 conference to be major? Or is it just the overall gameday atmosphere?

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We had a better record the year before than tulane did when they qualified

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Originally Posted by RougaWhite&Blue

We had a better record the year before than tulane did when they qualified

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You think our resume looked like 2022 Tulane?

Louisiana is and has been the second largest school in the State since 1939. Drawing students from every Parish.

The growth was so fast the state went on a school opening spree.

Ironically this growth was at a time when media was covering Louisiana Athletics first, before covering other schools. Coinciding with this was the schools heavy focus on Athletics.

Go back further and they were covering Ivy League schools before covering LSU.

It has taken decades but local media dug their own grave by propping up an artificial fan base and not covering local jewels. Coinciding with this is the schools efforts to kill the golden goose.

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Originally Posted by jaxmc1023

You think our resume looked like 2022 Tulane?

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Not sure they compare resumes across seasons, but, A home loss to a 4-4 sunbelt team vs going undefeated in sunbelt? Then maybe a loss at texas compared to a loss to ucf might wash (although it was early the other was not)

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Originally Posted by jaxmc1023

The only other group that you can pull from are the people in the Acadiana area that are present at every Festival International (300k+ over three or four days), Festival Acadiens (50k estimated - 2022), Mardi Gras (12k per mile - 2017), etc.

Now... all of these events are free, but the community has demonstrated that a free event where you can pass a good time, drink some beer, eat good food, listen to music, etc.. They'll come to that in the thousands. That's what tailgating has to be. The "thing" that's going on for 5-6 Saturdays a year where people go.

Then your challenge is to convince them that the party in the parking lot will keep rolling if they buy a ticket and come inside.

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Well done. You just summed up our entire tailgating issue in these few paragraphs.