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

[CajunEXPRESS]

agree, about JUCO part.

[CharlieK]

Considering that when that skank Tabby first started this crap back in late fall the ULS President basically said she didn't care and had more important matters to deal with, I doubt that is the case.

That is what she said publically at the time. We have no idea what was communicated to and by her since.

However you may be right.

[ulforlife]

Here ya go. Happy reading.

http://bit.ly/1m68xtl

But Jay, they failed in so many more ways than just the UL-L. This is what should have been submitted:

Official Institutional Name – University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Nickname – Ragin' Cajuns; Cajuns
Preferred Athletic Reference – Louisiana
Preferred Abbreviation (minimum two letters; maximum four letters) – LA
Prohibited References or Abbreviations – Please refer to the University's name and nickname policy. Prohibited references and abbreviations include: ULL, Lafayette, Laf., U of L, Lady Cajuns or Ragin' Cajuns (without the apostrophe).

So let me get this straight, the university requests that we be called "Louisiana" athletically, yet on the form where it reads "Preferred Athletic Reference" they submit "UL Lafayette"?

Then when they go back to "fix it" they squeeze Louisiana in with Ragin' Cajuns? Do they not know the difference between the definitions Nickname and Athletic Reference???

Clearly the disconnect is not between the conference and the university, but rather the university and it's president.

[ulXrunner]

One more note, let's hope the Cajun basketball team does well in the conference tournament. If we are lucky enough to be in the finals it would be great if our fan base had a multitude of signs simply saying University of Louisiana or just Louisiana. We would need to have enough so as the ESPN cameras could not miss them. Now the university may not feel it is legal to help with the distribution of those but they would likely not object to fans taking the lead on the effort. Anyone have printing connections were they could work to making that happen?

The SB or our own leadership can not mandate what I call my university. I will continue the fight by simply referring to us as Louisiana. I'm done with the complaining. If we continue to fund raise, build our master plan, pay for good coaches, support our students and student athletes, attend games home and away, etc, etc, etc, then we will continue to rise to the top. Other than LSU, no other school in our state supports itself like we do, Point blank! We need to focus on us and getting our own on board. We have made some ground on this name issue. Nobody forget that.
What hurts is we thought we had something different in Martin Hall now. Well, turns out in some ways we don't. Now in my opinion, someone higher up the hill than Savoie is rolling ____ down it and like any person in Savoie shoes, he is keeping his mouth close as to who the ____ roller is. What ticks me off is that Martin Hall is quiet. Man up, Savoie, and speak to us. Give us your reasons and if valid, you have my support. I don't mind as a fan pushing the Louisiana agenda if you are tied up legally. I'll grab that flag and run it all over Baton Rouge, ULM's schoolyard, and LaTech's peach field. If you know me, you know I can damn well run! Ultimately I want what's best for the university and our community but I need direction from a leader. After that, get out my damn way!

[cajundiehard]

The Sun Belt Guide can be changed again. Why doesn't Savoie ask the fans/RCAF members or something in regard to the 2-4 letter abbreviation?

LA is the answer, the more I think about it. It violates nothing.

Agreed! AND we can tell all our detractors that LA = Lafayette. Ignorance is bliss!

[anhil8tor]

The Sun Belt Guide can be changed again. Why doesn't Savoie ask the fans/RCAF members or something in regard to the 2-4 letter abbreviation?

I've seen communication departments be proactive and run polls. Maybe that would be an idea?

[cajunfan96]

Excellent!

[anhil8tor]

Dr. Savioe should make a statement... ignoring it doesn't help.

[ulforlife]

I've seen communication departments be proactive and run polls. Maybe that would be an idea?

The fact that this would even be a consideration really speaks volumes for an inability by our university to brand itself.

The damage is done.

They should have actually sat back and thought about this, but instead they threw out a quick knee-jerk reaction after the initial release and anything more at this point would make us look more like a clown show than we are.

[Duggie35]

Since hyphens are apparently an approved character, why not go with -UL-?

Realistically, ULA or LA is the way to go.

[HoustonCajun]

"We chose to submit UL-L for those isolated instances where as abbreviation was needed". Are you ____ing serious? Which part of their brain was telling these people that if any form of ULL was laid out there that the Conference, National media and our adversaries in the form of our so called "sister" Universities would not pick up "UL-L" and run with it????? This is clueless to the point of incompetence and heads need to roll.

This is what the revised SBC press release says:

Official Name: University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Nickname: Louisiana Ragin Cajuns
1st Reference: UL Lafayette
Abbreviation: UL-L

This is what the SBC press release SHOULD SAY:

Official Name - The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Nickname - Ragin Cajuns
1st Reference - LOUISIANA
Abbreviation - LU or LA

How could they possible screw this up? Using Louisiana Ragin Cajuns as our Nickname? Really? (And shouldn't this be a moniker and not a nickname?) We had a second shot at this and still blew it. Are these people brainless? As BOP said, 14 years of work to gain the LOUISIANA name lost in a second with this.

If we gain Tier 1 status, don't you want that associated with LOUISIANA and not UL-L? Can't our people walk and chew gum at the same time? We came up with a legal athletic reference in LOUISIANA, which should be our 1st reference with the SBC. Why did we abandon that? Why is our marketing department infusing academic reference (UL Lafayette) with athletic reference (Louisiana)? The SBC is NOT the LaLouisiane magazine which UL Lafayette's us to death in every article. Wasn't the whole point of athletic branding to create the Louisiana identity? And how on earth do you come up with UL-L as our abbreviation? Did marketing have a brain fart that clouded Dr. S' judgement on this? This is all just beyond comprehension.

[SlappyCajun]

I agree. We'll see what happens now.