Five National TV Games Highlight 2013 Football Schedule

[Turbine]

This schedule should have been billed as an "uncomfortable anomaly"

The only option left is . . . for Hudspeth and Company to "CRUSH IT"

[Oiler]

Our window of opportunity is closing fast. The only positive is that Dr Savoie has realized what kind of a bind we are in and has taken this bull by the horns and made it his baby. Those that have proven that they cant find their ___ with both hands have been relegated to menial tasks.. the adults are working now.

Z

Another positive is that our competition for that last spot in CUSA is pretty weak. TX St and GA St are still new to FBS and CUSA already has plenty of start-up programs coming in. ASU and UL are the two best "established" FBS programs left for CUSA to pick from. I like our chances against ASU.

[Just1More]

This schedule should have been billed as an "uncomfortable anomaly"

The only option left is . . . for Hudspeth and Company to "CRUSH IT"

I hope that it's a situational schedule too (but it is only situational if we accomplish getting out of the SBC). And if Scott actually believes it's an "uncomfortable anomaly", he sure doesn't act as such. It is imperative that we do exceptionally well with this schedule, or our fan base will recede quickly. That will have side effects that we won't recover from.

I see it as two different approaches. We have a schedule we can potentially dominate. We MUST now dominate it. The second issue is getting this kind of schedule eliminated. That is not a "scheduling" issue. It is a conference membership issue.

Personally, regardless of how much more fluidity there is to conference realignment, we waited too long to act on it. We put everything, from a program growth and capitalization from Hud's accomplishments perspective, in a suspended animation state for the past 12 months for the sake of the Master Plan. I'm telling you... this Master Plan better include the cure for cancer. If it does not, we need to run our management group out of town.

[CajunNation]

...We have a schedule we can potentially dominate. ....

How so?

The combined power rating for this year's schedule will be nearly the same as last year's schedule.

[Just1More]

How so?

The combined power rating for this year's schedule will be nearly the same as last year's schedule.

Hud, that's how so. Last year's schedule sucked too.

[SlappyCajun]

How so?

The combined power rating for this year's schedule will be nearly the same as last year's schedule.

This schedule will undoubtedly be weaker by any reliable metric.

[Just1More]

This schedule will undoubtedly be weaker by any reliable metric.

We also came damn close to dominating the regular season schedule last year. We shouldn't have gotten eaten by NT in the second half, and I consider Florida one different coaching decision away from a win.

[Oiler]

The 2013 schedule, and whether or not we dominate it, will not be a factor in determining if we get into CUSA this year. We'll know our fate on, or before, July 1.

[Just1More]

The 2013 schedule, and whether or not we dominate it, will not be a factor in determining if we get into CUSA this year. We'll know our fate on, or before, July 1.

I don't think anyone is making that correlation. Our fan base and support are at risk if we continue to roll out uninteresting schedules... especially home opponents. Whether our admin accomplishes a last second move to CUSA, it is still imperative that they, personally, are doing monumental acts so that we don't continue to be no conference's next member considered, other than the decaying SBC.

It is very difficult to determine when improved conference membership accessibility will become out of our reach... but what this administration exhibited over the past few years is their incredible lack of comprehension regarding how this would play out to date, and what they personally were required, and are required to do in order to not miss critical, critical open hatches that will eventually clamp shut.

When and if we are left out of the remaining moves... we are doomed to horrendous future football. We will see one massively quick reversal of the fortune that Hud alone brought us. Hud will leave and we will reverse out of the fan excitement situation he created... over night.

[CajunRebel]

It's not a contradiction if you look at it this way. We sold 12,000 season tickets this past year and we played two BCS programs Florida and Oklahoma State for an average of around $850,000 between the two games. Can UL get by with maybe scheduling a Kansas or Texas Tech for around $500,000 or $600,000?....I believe it can should we sell more than $12,000 seats and don't have the make up the lost revenue. It addition to that you balance out your schedule with home and home agreements with a Kent State, Akron or Ohio from the MAC and occasionally get a 2-for-1 with a Oklahoma State to come to Lafayette. That is one reason you do add the seating at Cajun Field. MAC, CUSA and MWC are the conferences we need to work with to get home and home arraignments with.

Because of our current situation, we are playing Nicholls State, Georgia State and South Alabama. In my count we are playing one FCS program, one FCS transition program and one former transition program in 2013. You don't think coaches are using that against UL in recruiting battles? Athletes don't look at our conference's short term or long term potential in the same manner as we do; they just see three bad programs on our schedule and hear the competition continue to say the Sun Belt is the worst conference in the country. The only way to combat our current conference affiliation is to win conference championships, win bowl games and build facilities. But that will only work short term because we are light years behind other in facility improvements and everyone is looking to improve their facilities.

I guess the question comes down to how much money we'd be willing to leave on the table to improve our odds of winning a money game. Personally I'd like for us to be more aggressive in scheduling more 2 for 1's with the non-powerhouse BCS teams instead of just money games. It's important for us to get better opponents into Cajun Field.

I have no doubt other coaches are using our conference against us in recruiting battles. But at the same time you could make the same argument about C-USA who is also filled with a bunch of FCS schools so I don't know how much that argument really hurts us in the end. I would imagine that things like winning games, going to bowl games, facilities, coaching, education, etc. would all trump conference affiliation in the minds of most recruits. At least at the non-BCS level. But don't get me wrong I'm not trying to say it doesn't have an effect. One thing is for certain, given what he has to work with as a coach at UL, Hud's recruiting classes have been nothing short of miraculous.