2013 Staking a Claim for Louisiana

[CajunRebel]

While I agree with this; remember that two years ago, T-Joe made us change the Scoreboard in Cajun Field from 'Louisiana vs ULM' to 'Cajuns vs Warhawks', at the request of the President of ULM. If that happens again this year, at least part of our problem still lives in Martin Hall. Maybe we should be sending emails to president@louisiana.edu as well as to benson@sunbeltsports.org. Emailing ESPN is pointless; they aren't changing until the Conference tells them to. At least they finally came clean as to the real reason.

I don't know what T-Joe's motives were, but if there is one person you don't want to rub the wrong way about the name issue, it's the ULM president. He's the one guy who is in a position to raise a huge fuss over it and get sympathy from the North Louisiana delegation. One small piece of legislation that says no university can call themselves by the nickname "Louisiana" could stamp out everything we've worked for. It's not like it hasn't happened before. T-Joe has to play politics.

On a personal note, I've heard the guy speak many times, and I don't think anyone can question where he stands on the name issue.


Oh and as far as Benson is concerned, we evidently know where he stands on the issue. F*** him. Flood the mans email with name questions. Hell, while you're at it forward all your _____ enlargement and Nigerian prince spam to him too.

[basinbear]

While I agree with this; remember that two years ago, T-Joe made us change the Scoreboard in Cajun Field from 'Louisiana vs ULM' to 'Cajuns vs Warhawks', at the request of the President of ULM. If that happens again this year, at least part of our problem still lives in Martin Hall. Maybe we should be sending emails to president@louisiana.edu as well as to benson@sunbeltsports.org. Emailing ESPN is pointless; they aren't changing until the Conference tells them to. At least they finally came clean as to the real reason.

I would encourage everyone to email Mr. Benson on this matter (benson@sunbeltsports.org). Remember....according to State law we cannot officially promote ourselves as The University of Louisiana. The angle to take on this is Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns or Ragin Cajuns. This is legal. Please be respectful. No one is more aggravated about this then me. But being upset is no reason to be disrespectful. Yes we are trying to leave this Conference. But lets try some Ragin' Cajun charm on folks while we do try to leave.

[VObserver]

We need the announcers to inform us of who, by name, has ULM and the SBC effectively contacted at ESPN. We don't need the contact info of those that don't make decisions. Who, specifically, makes the decisions at ESPN wrt our broadcast athletic nickname?

If that individual confirms that it's the SBC... we need to organize around T-Joe and force a plan that both he commits to, and we commit to. Karl Benson and the SBC do not tell us what our athletic nickname is. If we say to ESPN that we call ourselves the "Louisiana Ragin Cajuns", that is what we should be called during our broadcasts.

While I totally agree with you in principal; the fact remains that ESPN has a contract with the Sun Belt Conference, not with us. Our President, with our total support, needs to tell Benson in no uncertain terms that neither he, nor any other entity in the conference has any right to dictate our branding; and that, in fact, it is the DUTY of the conference to support us in our branding initiative, exactly as it is their job to do so with every other school in the conference. It should be very clear that we will do whatever is necessary to achieve our branding goals, even to the extent of leaving the conference and taking the New Orleans Bowl with us.

We have leverage with the conference as its cash cow in football, and its leading brand identifier in both softball and baseball. The basketball cash cow is leaving, and we can take that role as well. Benson needs to be made to understand that by caving to ULM, he is placing the conference at risk of losing substantial revenue and brand identification.

[MelRock]

The Sun Belt banned me from following them because I kept saying "We Are LOUISIANA"

[GrumpyCajun]

My .02, that is the best we can hope for. For now.....

We need to work on the SBC is where our true issue is.

This is why the SID’s efforts to lecture and embarrass ESPN were an exercise in futility! He of all people knows the Sun Belt Conference office edits all of his releases to Louisiana-Lafayette, yet his memo was to ESPN. All he did was emboldening their stance and embarrass this university while motivating the ULM insurgents to increase their rhetoric because he actually used “The University of Louisiana”.

The daily rags local beat writer is a Benson worshiper that actually thinks he is doing a great job. Because Benson grants him interviews, don’t expect any hard driven questions from him on the subject.

[Hammer58]

Don't put words in my mouth.

I'm pretty sure everyone but you understood that I was talking about not attacking the announcers for listening to their bosses. All it will do is ____ them off and make them Lafayette us more often out of spite.

A few of us did tweet him and ask him to use Ragin Cajuns instead of la-Lafayette. He said he understood our frustration and he'd use that more often.

This has been par for the course since ULM joined the conference 10 years ago. I promise ULM fan emails had nothing to do with it and emails from us won't change it. ESPN is well aware of what we want to be called and they refuse to do it because they don't do business with us. But they do do business with our conference and they are trying to respect the wishes of their business partner by calling us La Lafayette. With ESPN it's not our fight. It's up to the administration, to convince the conference, to convince ESPN.

Bull. Given the numerous ever-changing explanations given by those announcers it isn't just their bosses they are hearing from. So what if we ____ them off by flooding them with e-mails? They are already ignoring our wishes so lets just keep reminding them of how much they ____ us off

[CajunJack55]

While I totally agree with you in principal; the fact remains that ESPN has a contract with the Sun Belt Conference, not with us. Our President, with our total support, needs to tell Benson in no uncertain terms that neither he, nor any other entity in the conference has any right to dictate our branding; and that, in fact, it is the DUTY of the conference to support us in our branding initiative, exactly as it is their job to do so with every other school in the conference. It should be very clear that we will do whatever is necessary to achieve our branding goals, even to the extent of leaving the conference and taking the New Orleans Bowl with us.

We have leverage with the conference as its cash cow in football, and its leading brand identifier in both softball and baseball. The basketball cash cow is leaving, and we can take that role as well. Benson needs to be made to understand that by caving to ULM, he is placing the conference at risk of losing substantial revenue and brand identification.

Bravo sire! Very well said....I am sending my emails out to day to every party I can think of. I think every little bit helps.

[Hammer58]

I emailed t-joe with a link to thus discussion to make him aware that ESPN is blaming ulm and the conference for their refusal to follow our SID's press release on how to refer to our teams. I urged him to contact Benson and get this straightened out once and for all and lay down the law that ulm doesn't dictate how we are referenced. I also urged him not to cave on the scoreboard issue as VO pointed out.

I suggest others email him so he sees this is not isolated to one fan

[GrumpyCajun]

I emailed t-joe with a link to thus discussion to make him aware that ESPN is blaming ulm and the conference for their refusal to follow our SID's press release on how to refer to our teams. I urged him to contact Benson and get this straightened out once and for all and lay down the law that ulm doesn't dictate how we are referenced. I also urged him not to cave on the scoreboard issue as VO pointed out.

I suggest others email him so he sees this is not isolated to one fan

Good luck with that Hammer!

[Lafitte the Pirate]

I would encourage everyone to email Mr. Benson on this matter (benson@sunbeltsports.org). Remember....according to State law we cannot officially promote ourselves as The University of Louisiana. The angle to take on this is Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns or Ragin Cajuns. This is legal. Please be respectful. No one is more aggravated about this then me. But being upset is no reason to be disrespectful. Yes we are trying to leave this Conference. But lets try some Ragin' Cajun charm on folks while we do try to leave.

I agree with everything that Mr. Basinbear is saying. Believe me, he knows. I would encourge everyone here to also send "very respectfull" email to Dr. Savioe on this realignment issue. It is coming up again. We need to push ahead to be in the western side of CUSA or AAC if that opportunity arrises. These issues are being discussed now. We can not take a back seat like we have been doing previously.

[basinbear]

I am done with the Sun Belt fans....since our official Athletic branding is not honored by the fans of other member schools and by the Sun Belt itself...I will no longer post on or log onto and read anything on the CSNBBS SBC board...Call it a boycott if you will and it probably will make no difference but we need to wash our hands of that dump of a website...We are the only member that is so disrespected that these people listen to the wishes of another ****hole of a College concerning something that we have a LEGAL right to do...

[basinbear]

I agree with everything that Mr. Basinbear is saying. Believe me, he knows. I would encourge everyone here to also send "very respectfull" email to Dr. Savioe on this realignment issue. It is coming up again. We need to push ahead to be in the western side of CUSA or AAC if that opportunity arrises. These issues are being discussed now. We can not take a back seat like we have been doing previously.

I wish that I did know everything concerning realignment. It would be worth it to not let up on our Administration concerning realignment. Doesn't hurt to occasionally drop a like to our President and A.D. on this matter. there is no "front burner" activity concerning realignment at the present time but as everyone has found out over the last 2 years...this is when you get all of your chickens lined up. If the train again leaves the station and we are not on that train....well ....there is no way to describe the firestorm that would come down on certain folks....