2014 Branding Fiasco: UL-Lafayette or UL-L (SBC Reference Guide)

[basinbear]

I agree. I was hoping this would be addressed. Even on the second go the University is still effing it up. Should be:

Nickname: Ragin' Cajuns or Cajuns
First Reference: Louisiana
Shortened reference: this is a matter of opinion, but I could live with LA, ULA, LOU (only if Louisville uses UL, to avoid confusion) or LU. Similar to how the University of Oklahoma is OU.

"LU" is the answer. Oklahoma , Kansas, Colorado and Idaho all reverse their letters ..."OU" for example and they use that acronym for Athletics and Academics....it would make even more sense for our University to do this simply because "LU" is pronounced "LOU"...as in "LUisiana".....

Check out OU's branding procedures www.ou.edu/brand.html

[RaginScotsman]

ULA was next to the score during at least one of the 2000 college word series games.

[Turbine]

Odd. The article states that UL didn't have a 2-4 letter abbreviation, so they went with UL-L. How about LA?

With apps, tickers and visual broadcasts you cannnot survive without a 2-4 letter Stat Stamp.

The UL policy makers at La Louisiane have obviously never paid attention to sporting events of any kind.

If they had it would not have taken two whole years to come up completely empty, only to be chased two days later with a non-solution that violates every long standing internal UL policy on what not to use.

[Zeebart21]

"LU" is the answer. Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Idaho all reverse their letters ..."OU" for example and they use that acronym for Athletics and Academics....it would make even more sense for our University to do this simply because "LU" is pronounced "LOU"...as in "LUisiana".....

makes too much sense.

Z

[BirdofParadise]

Just to clarify: ULA would violate the law. LOU is the statistical abbreviation for Louisville

[BrockMeaux]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the reason we didn't/couldn't use ULA is because it's the same as trying to use UL...any time we use the U (university of), it has to include the city designation, even if it's an abbreviation. I think LA fits the whole "athletic branding" initiative while keeping it legal, as it's just a shortened version of the Louisiana athletic nickname and wouldn't require the Lafayette due to not including "University of." But I could see some media pushback on LA because that may or may not be used by any number of Los Angeles franchises, I don't know for sure. Thinking a bit outside the box, what about LARC or LRC for "Louisiana Ragin Cajuns?" Similar to how the Dodgers use "LAD," the Lakers use "LAL," etc. I don't know how much I love them, but those are different and they get rid of the need to use two L's.

EDIT: As I was typing, Jay confirmed that ULA would violate the law as I thought.

[basinbear]

Bird, does any University or College use the abbreviation "LU" as a statistical abbreviation?

[CajunEXPRESS]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the reason we didn't/couldn't use ULA is because it's the same as trying to use UL...any time we use the U (university of), it has to include the city designation, even if it's an abbreviation. I think LA fits the whole "athletic branding" initiative while keeping it legal, as it's just a shortened version of the Louisiana athletic nickname and wouldn't require the Lafayette due to not including "University of." But I could see some media pushback on LA because that may or may not be used by any number of Los Angeles franchises, I don't know for sure. Thinking a bit outside the box, what about LARC or LRC for "Louisiana Ragin Cajuns?" Similar to how the Dodgers use "LAD," the Lakers use "LAL," etc. I don't know how much I love them, but those are different and they get rid of the need to use two L's.

EDIT: As I was typing, Jay confirmed that ULA would violate the law as I thought.

There is not mandate by the conference to use the U, no mandate to use capitals. Example TxSt. Indeed to avoid confusion with LA, Los Angles, we could have met their demands with a simple La, and nothing else. Violates no law, or policy of the ULS, or the state of Louisiana and is within two to four letters.

[Cajunsmike]

I have a question for Jay. Will he inform Commissioner Benson that alumni, students, fans, our coaches in many instances will continue to use Louisiana or UL when referring to our university. Will he also tell him that the ultimate goal is to be widely known by those terms. He probably does not need to tell him that as he likely already knows. Of course we need to leave the league to advance that goal and Jay said yesterday on his show we are working on improving our conference situation. I suggest our leaders make a more public admission we are doing that to the fan base (similar to what La Tech did). If that bothers the other Sun Belt members, so be it.

[Turbine]

Los Angeles is L.A.

Postal Service for Louisiana is LA

[Cajunologist]

ULA violates the law? ok, What if LSU-Alexandria one day becomes UL-Alexandria, Would ULA not be allowed for them? Could the current law ever be changed so that the city tag or region be acceptable? That would make it possible for us to be ULA. I'm just so tired of all this crap. This school is over 100 years old and we are still trying to figure out what its called. Just pick something and be done with it already! What is worse about this 'new' abbrevation is that I've never seen 'UL-L' written like that before. Has anyone? This is a totally new way of writing it to add to more confusion.

[KajunKrazy]

my wife recently learned where Auburn is located because of their football success.

And your point is? Thats not comparing apples to apples. Next time UL is in the SEC and competing for a national championship we will compare ourselves to AU. Having said that you cannot compare Auburn to Acadiana. Last I checked Auburn Al is a city in Al. Acadiana is not a city. If you want to be called Lafayette like Auburn, Louisville, Memphis... thats a whole different argument. But as I originally stated no one outside of La knows that we have a geographical area called Acadiana. That would be a branding nightmare.