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

[Boomer]

Forget for a second that hyphens are illegal. LOUISIANA-L makes more sense than UL-Lafayette.

---I lieu of----I have pushed this forever at least accentuate the Louisiana!!!!

[Earl]

Its LSU's fault!!!..Herp!..da!.. Derp!

[Turbine]

Its LSU's fault!!!..Herp!..da!.. Derp!

That is the bed they made in 1984, sleep in it, fault lines and all.

[Hammer58]

OK so now that this board is completely filled with complaining and moaning, let's try to come to terms with what the thought process was that T-Joe may have used to make a decision on what the conference would refer to us as.

First of all, he had to choose something. Long before the Sun Belt told him he needed to choose something, he needed to choose something. Why? Because no one knew what to use. All we've ever done is tell people what NOT to use. Can you blame them? Seriously, think about that.

So he sits down, and he starts to think about it. "What would we as a university like to be called?" Well the first thing that pops in his head is "UL". After all, the interlocking logo is on our baseball caps, it's on our athletic uniforms, it's on the decals for sale in the university bookstore; you get me. But wait, we can't use that. You all know why. OK, so scratch that one.

What comes up next, hm maybe "ULL"? No, that certainly won't work. Why? Well, because that's what we've been telling everyone NOT to use. After all, it would look too similar to "ULM" and in addition that, it goes against the interlocking UL we've been using all this time. OK, scratch that too.

So then come other ideas, I would imagine he had a number of them. He knows we want to be referred to as "Louisiana" so maybe he thinks LOU would be an idea. Well, no, that won't work because it's too much like Louisville. And on and on.

So finally he decides to go with UL-L. Why? Because he felt it was as close to UL as we could get (we don't have to change our branding this way), and it's different from ULM. So hey, two birds with one stone right? And that's where we find ourselves.

Well here's what I think the problem is: too much confusion. He makes a decision that was forced upon him because of complaint and confusion, and creates more from it. But, is that his fault? What did you want him to do? Given the circumstances he didn't have many options.

This university needs a re-branding of it's image something fierce. Just do it all at once. The pepper, the color yellow, the 300 different names we go by, whatever. If Louisiana is truly what the school wants to be known by, then an abbreviation should not (and will not) matter. That being said I am highly against the hyphen, as it only allows for more confusion (same reason why you avoid them in web addresses). This is Marketing 101 people. Until this university gets serious about our image then we will continue to not have one.

Well instead of UL-Lafayette he could have told Benson he wanted Louisiana Lafayette spelled out. For the abbreviation he could have told him to use LA. And he could have told Benson that Bruno does not get to dictate what we are called. Finally since Benson seems to insist that Bruno must be okay with our references he could have told a Benson that the Hoax must use a hyphen also as in ul-m.

But I keep forgetting. Bruno can't be the problem because T-Boy keeps telling me how Savoie and Bruno work together, Bruno needs us, etc. What a ____ing crock !!!!

[Hammer58]

This is an excellent point. I hope you are right and we get to find out soon.

On another topic, how sad does this Mcneeselegend1's life have to be? He has read through a 16 page thread about the name of another University for the sole purpose of defending LSU. What-A-Loser.

Are you surprised? Being a Brokeback alum is the definition of a pathetic loser.

[HoustonCajun]

Universite' des Acadiens

You know, the more I look at the flag and the French spelling of University of Acadiana, the more I like it. Ragin Cajuns is Acadiana. It is not representative of the entire state. It is our French heritage. It is where we are located. It doesn't regionalize us any more than Auburn does to itself. Just what does Northwestern University mean? It's located in Chicago not the Northwest. What better describes the Ragin Cajuns than Acadiana? We are the University of Acadiana Ragin Cajuns and go by UA. Maybe we should stop this charade as the University of Louisiana which we will never achieve. We want a clear identity, change our name. I, for one, do not want to go thru another 14 years of this crap which will now be much worse as UL-L. We were so close to acceptance as Louisiana and now that ship has sailed. Just how long will this insanity continue? The problem is, we will not all agree with this, so we are back to square one. We can enjoy the thrill of a hyphenated reference forever or create our own true identity which we probably should have gone with to begin with. I love being LOUISIANA, but we lost it outside of this board or Lafayette dispite any crap that might come out of UL Marketing. Fighting it will do us no good. They screwed the pooch on this for good. Let's do something positive to get us out of this mess.

[zakeeus]

I say embrace it. Lets go by U-LA-LA and have commercials with big breasted half naked models saying "OOOOOO la la", while licking loli pops.

[CajunT]

Your Boomerese is a little rusty tonight T. I think he just meant that he will only buy UL/Louisiana branded gear and will only read the newspaper that uses our preferred reference (the DA not the Advocate).

I don't think he was cooking up a conspiracy theory against the Advocate.

I could care less about the Advocate, but Boomer is saying he won't read it because it doesn't use UL or Louisiana.
So who is telling the Advocate and other newspapers it's okay to call us UL-Lafayette and not ULL?

"UL Lafayette has been our official abbreviation since 1999"

"We request that the University not be referred to as "ULL" in any instance. Local media have almost never used ULL. Recently, several major daily papers throughout Louisiana, at our request, have moved away from use of ULL as an abbreviation: New Orleans Advocate, Baton Rouge Advocate, Acadiana Advocate, The News Star (Monroe), The Town Talk (Alexandria) and The Shreveport Times, as well as many other media throughout the state. We greatly appreciate everyone's support."

As long as they do not use ULL, the media have been directed to use UL-Lafayette clearly. So my point to Boomer is to stop ignoring the policy makers that he has known for years at UL and stop blaming the bogeyman in the closet.

BTW, Boomer reads the NO paper which does not use UL or Louisiana either? I don't get it! LOL!!!

[ulforlife]

Well instead of UL-Lafayette he could have told Benson he wanted Louisiana Lafayette spelled out. For the abbreviation he could have told him to use LA. And he could have told Benson that Bruno does not get to dictate what we are called. Finally since Benson seems to insist that Bruno must be okay with our references he could have told a Benson that the Hoax must use a hyphen also as in ul-m.

But I keep forgetting. Bruno can't be the problem because T-Boy keeps telling me how Savoie and Bruno work together, Bruno needs us, etc. What a ____ing crock !!!!

Yeah, it's a mess. I never originally saw that the Sun Belt had requested information from each university for their "University Reference Guide" but now that I do see it, I can see that the decision should have been quite simple.

First Reference: Louisiana
Abbreviation: LA

Done deal

[Turbine]

Yeah, it's a mess. I never originally saw that the Sun Belt had requested information from each university for their "University Reference Guide" but now that I do see it, I can see that the decision should have been quite simple.

First Reference: Louisiana
Abbreviation: LA

Done deal

It should have been so easy.

"This is what happens when Athletics kicks the ball to Martin Hall. In answer to a purely "Athletic" question, you get a convoluted Academic marketing based answer."

[Cajunsmike]

Funny a guy who has a basketball team with a terrible record, can't afford to play non conference home games, got blown out by our team which has only one true big man, is now regularly getting schooled by Southeastern Louisiana in many sports including football, and could get only 5000 people to go to a home playoff football game calls us losers.

[basinbear]

Funny a guy who has a basketball team with a terrible record, can't afford to play non conference home games, got blown out by our team which has only one true big man, is now regularly getting schooled by Southeastern Louisiana in many sports including football, and could get only 5000 people to go to a home playoff football game calls us losers.

Just the facts.....BOOM