Very insightful.Here's how a name makes a difference. You draw whatever you want from it...Long time TV station in Memphis, until recently had the call letters WPTY. The previous owners paid no attention to this small detail of what people call you. They went on their merry way to many shameful and neglected years of not paying attention to rating books, not investing in better people, equipment, facility, or branding. They drove a one time decent tv station to a last place finish in revenue and ratings. But, they still used WPTY. New owner comes in, pays a barging price for station as bottom is what is was worth...Enter a new GM, she goes out in the community and listens to business owners, community leaders, clients, etc. All of them, to a person, call the station "We PiTY" or Pity for short, some even went so far to use PiTYful. The station had been on the air for nearly 20 years and thats how folks in the community knew the station, not as an ABC affiliate, but by PiTY. New owners took it to heart, invested nearly 5 million dollars in a total rebuild of station. Most importantly, approval was given for new call letter, WAFT...We're ABC for Tennessee, the brand they use to now open newscasts etc and its how the public in general refers to them, AFT, or ABC Tennessee.
I could give you enough examples to bore you and everyone else on this board to death. The point is, you are known by your name/brand. Louisiana-Lafayette is not the name of the school, its a bastardized form of the legal name. I live outside of Louisiana. Its a F'n joke to explain to others who and what the school is. If I say Ragin Cajuns, they say...Oh, Louisiana Lafayette....Its not even F'n correct. Thanks to ESPN, AP, and others, confusion is running the show. I hate confusion, it just F's up everything. And since Martin Hall takes in tuition money and charges for people to come to sporting and academic events, just like buying a shirt at Cal's Western Store, We're customers of the University, they exist to serve the community....and right now, this community of die-hards aint being served.
BTW, I have a life...I'm a proud graduate of this school, I follow it from 800 miles away. And it ____es me OFF when the school we love gets pulled through the manure pile of mistakes that ESPN lays on us with each and every broadcast. So enjoy the big time bro, cause it ain't going to last for long if the school continues to ignore or at the very least pays lip service to what it should (to the advantage of everyone concerned) be called, branded, and remembered, as Louisiana!