Should LSU continue losing, might we see them in New Orleans?????
Should LSU continue losing, might we see them in New Orleans?????
The Bugster just loves lsu. LOL
I'm up in Maryland, so at present this question to you all. Is it better for UL to continue playing bowl games in our backyard (in our state) or venture out into the world where we can show the nation that we travel well no mather where we play?
Just as a follow up to this, Hawaii brought a couple hundred fans to the Navy game yesterday, wonder how many would have come if it had been a bowl game in Annapolis (Hawaii against Navy)?
That depends on how you define "travel well." Most good teams can bring 2,500-5,000 to a bowl game. That's very serviceable numbers for a mid-major, and honestly that's the kind of numbers I think we'd be looking at if we went outside of the Houston/Mobile/Shreveport box (barring a BCS Bowl, because Cajun fans would flock to that like it was the Super Bowl). A lot of teams would consider that "travelling well." I'd rather send 30-50,000 to Houston/New Orleans/Mobile/Shreveport. That puts more money in UL's pocket, which helps the school grow, which helps us become more successful, which gets us to bigger, better conferences and bowls, which our growing fan base will travel to. But I think we're a few years away from getting 5-figure numbers of fans travelling more than 400 miles for a bowl game.
Then again, I could be wrong. That's just my perception of our base. The threat of rain keeps 5,000 people away from home games and we can't get everybody out of the parking lot into the stadium. We've still got some work to do on that front.
RECRUITING---RECRUITING----RECRUITING!!!!!
Right now we need regional bowl sites that fans can travel to, preferably "destination" locations, and ideally a traditional "bowl date". I think Mobile meets the first criteria and while not New Orleans or Memphis still falls into the second category but , IMO, fails as far as the date.
Well said and spot on. Among a lot of other reasons that in totality trump these other bowl "considerations", you have captured some very compelling arguments. I get tired of everyone dismissing our participation in the NO Bowl as only a "good time, etc etc". If you add up the numerous benefits, they trump all other considerations.
I try to tell people, it will be enormously obvious when we are on a better bowl path than the NO Bowl. Too many people think bowls are open invites. They are not in any way shape or form. It isn't some elevated offering each year as we have a "better year". When we qualify for a "better bowl", it will be a large step change improvement over our past 3 years. There is no gradual up tick in bowls for SBC programs. We require undefeated seasons for obvious alternative "better bowl" consideration.
#1 choice - NOLA bowl against Tulane. Biggest crowd draw, probably an easy win, establish our program more in the NOLA area, make lots of money, most fun, etc....
#2 - NIU in Mobile. Not as big of a crowd, but still a decent sized crowd since it's not too far of a drive, high quality opponent with the chance to establish ourselves against slightly higher-tier programs, make a decent about of money, not as much fun as NOLA but still kinda fun, etc....
#3 - Independence Bowl in Shreveport. Not sure who we'd want our opponent to be. Tech and LSU would turn that game down in an instant. No way they'd want to risk losing to us in "their territory". Regardless of who we'd beat in the indy bowl, it'd be a chance to establish ourselves more in prime Tech/LSU territory
#4 - whatever that Bowl in Houston is. We've got a good alumni base there, we'd travel not as well as NOLA but still well, houston has lots of stuff to do, probably make decent money, chance to establish ourselves more in a big name city, etc.......
p.s.- i think whenever our stadium is finally at it's renovated capacity of (40-60k?), we could be a legit location for a bowl game
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