UL vs USM ( Comparison )

[DestinCajun]

_ Our fans often wonder why we can't get a home and home series with some C-USA schools and most thought it was a school simply looking down at us. Your reasoning makes sense since your boosters who pay a lot for the suites demand the 6 home games a year. We will be looking at stadium expansion/improvements in the near future and will likely be facing the same scenario as you. Every school wants to see BCS competition in their own stadium and, I agree, playing UL in the SuperDome would not benefit either school. It appears that the only long term solution is conference realligment in the near future that will bring us into the same conference. And, a conference with 12 members and a championship game that will help solve the scheduling dilemma. _

During those discussions many of us are fully and realistically aware that surrounding CUSA programs are also chasing the almighty dollar and must schedule to accomodate the cost of their operations and growth. The problem here is that apparantly many Cajun fans believe that all our AD needs to do is call up these schools, snap his fingers and that'll get them on our schedule. The other element you mention usually slips in after we've totally exhausted discussions of the relevant matters.

There's a lot of talk among UL fans of not playing any D1aa programs. Well, I'm here to you that if we want to consistently have 6 of 12 games at home, it may require playing more D1aa games and if we're doing so then it makes sense to play the ones that bring out the most fans. It's just business. Anyone looking around at our D1a neighbors' and their scheduling practices can see this happening.

As far as conference make-up changes, what happens will happens but we better not put too many of our eggs in that basket for now. It's about as relevant as talking about who is verbally committed to programs 6-8 months before signing day.

[DestinCajun]

Please be nice to the USM fans... USM has helped us out of jams on numerous occasions, and they have backed us when we tried to get into C-USA and the old Metro 7.

This is a relationship we need to protect. _

Recognizing that USM has been a "friend" to UL interests is one thing but failing to address posts by a few So Miss fans as to why they will kick our butts on the field in 2008 is another matter entirely.

The former is easy to do but the latter is not.

[PR_Eagle]

_ Well call us when you get a student population equal to ours will you. U.SM has nearly 16,000 while UL is over 17,000. Quit pretending your some kind of BSC school. Your arrogance is suprising. _

Point 1: We are Tier 3, you are Tier 4. Not that I really care- just stating a fact. Please don't take it as an insult to your school as I have no knowledge about it other than what I know about your football team.
Point 2: MS Pop- 2.9 Million. LA Pop- 4.3 million

I would hope that in additional 1.4 million, you can find an extra 1000 kids to attend a Tier 4 school.

[ULvictory]

I would hope that in additional 1.4 million, you can find an extra 1000 kids to attend a Tier 4 school. _

You also forget that we are competing against LSU, Tulane, La Tech, ULM, Southeastern, Nichols, McNeese, and Northwestern St. for students. You guys only have MSU and Ole Miss.

[billbeck451]

having been in both south louisiana and mississippi for many years now and spending time in both, this is my observations.

Lafayette is a growing vibrant city that has tons to offer anyone
Hattiesburg is a bump in the middle of nowhere that has had growth in the past few years because some guttless individuals left the coast after Katrina. - it is and has been a nowhere town forever with the only real thing going for it is a basically commuter college that is fourth choice for most people in the state. - behind miss state, ole miss and lsu

[SOSEAGLE]

That bump in the road is bigger than Oxford and Starkville. It was also voted a few years back as one of the top small towns to live in nationally. Before you take your shots know what you're talking about.

[CajunCherokee]

_ having been in both south louisiana and mississippi for many years now and spending time in both, this is my observations.

Lafayette is a growing vibrant city that has tons to offer anyone
Hattiesburg is a bump in the middle of nowhere that has had growth in the past few years because some guttless individuals left the coast after Katrina. - it is and has been a nowhere town forever with the only real thing going for it is a basically commuter college that is fourth choice for most people in the state. - behind miss state, ole miss and lsu _

Geez Louise. Calm down. Many of my friends and relatives have had nothing but good things to say about Hattiesburg and USM. Every city has its strengths and weaknesses.

You make us all sound bad when you blatantly criticize another city and university.

[CajunFun]

Point 1: We are Tier 3, you are Tier 4. Not that I really care- just stating a fact. Please don't take it as an insult to your school as I have no knowledge about it other than what I know about your football team.
Point 2: MS Pop- 2.9 Million. LA Pop- 4.3 million

I would hope that in additional 1.4 million, you can find an extra 1000 kids to attend a Tier 4 school.

First, let me apologize for some of my Cajun comrades here. There very nice people (usually), but I hope you can understand that beneath their anger is an intense desire to play USM regularly. And I hope you take that as a compliment.

Correction: we are not over 17K. We're between 16K and 17K. I think we've only broken 17K once. But enrollments, after our second wave of selective admissions standards, are once again climbing.

As for USM being Tier 3... that just happened in the last year or so, didn't it? Just curious. We're both Doc II's under SREB, as are Ole Miss, Louisville, Ga Tech and others.

One thing I would urge you guys to consider in your discussions (as if our respective administrations ever listen to anything we have to say... LOL), is our demographics. Lafayette is just over 200K, nothing to brag about.

But at a 30 mile radius, it's over 600K. There are lots of small and medium-sized cities in the region. And the Lake Charles-N.O. corridor has over 3M people.

And we have lots of N.O. alums. Because of cultural affinities, we actually have a lot more alums in N.O. than in B.R. So both of our schools have lots and lots of alums in N.O.

Now here's something I would offer for your consideration: rivals boost attendance and donations... all year long, for all games. Rivals boost enthusiasm year-round. Years ago when we were in the small college division, playing KSU in basketball in Lafayette, during a lull our fans started yelling "Go to Hëll McNeese, Go to Hëll!"

Think about that: we're hosting a Big 8 team, and our fans are preoccupied with the regional school down the road.

Of course, McNeese was smaller and academically weaker than we were then, and the gap has steadily spread. Tech got too big for their own britches, and we don't see them very often. So one of UL's big problems is that we don't have an intense rivalry. From some of your comments here, you have sort of a rivalry with Memphis, but not the intensity you had with Louisville.

IMHO, rivalries flourish when alumni interact. With only a few exceptions, rivalries work when alums live in the same cities. Texas & OU alums exchange barbs in Dallas, Michigan & OSU alums argue in large cities throughout the Midwest, UF/FSU/Miami go at it all over the state, etc. One of LSBR's problems with their "rivalry" with Arkansas, is that their alums don't interact, so the rivalry has never really taken off.

If my thesis has merit, with the many alums UL has in Houston and in N.O., I think Houston and USM are natural rivals for us. I think we would all see more attendance, enrollments and donations if we played regularly.

And UL brings good crowds to both schools. Houston was nicely impressed two years ago with our football following, and your fans were impressed with our baseball crowd later that academic year. We think you will be pleasantly surprised with our attendance Saturday... if the hurricane doesn't muck it up.

I understand your financial constraints. And we certainly don't expect you to take a hit to back us.

I guess the point of all this is to ask you and your supporters to simply keep an open mind. In many ways, we don't match up with USM. But in some ways that you may not be aware of, we are equals, maybe a tad better.

So don't let the people here get to you. Underneath the irritation is an intense respect for USM and what you have accomplished.

[PR_Eagle]

I personally think the discussion about academics is irrelevant.

This is a football forum right?

Right.

[Broadway Brett]

_ having been in both south louisiana and mississippi for many years now and spending time in both, this is my observations.

Lafayette is a growing vibrant city that has tons to offer anyone
Hattiesburg is a bump in the middle of nowhere that has had growth in the past few years because some guttless individuals left the coast after Katrina. - it is and has been a nowhere town forever with the only real thing going for it is a basically commuter college that is fourth choice for most people in the state. - behind miss state, ole miss and lsu _

A stool softener would make you feel much better.

[Clutch0364]

_ I personally think the discussion about academics is irrelevant.

This is a football forum right?

Right. _

No this is a UL forum...we talk about everything that has to do with UL on here. Football is something we talk about often but not just a football forum.

[zephyr]

_ I personally think the discussion about academics is irrelevant.

This is a football forum right?

Right. _

Actually, its a fan forum. Football usually dominates the discussion this time of year but this is a general discussion board

[GoGold]

_ First, let me apologize for some of my Cajun comrades here. There very nice people (usually), but I hope you can understand that beneath their anger is an intense desire to play USM regularly. And I hope you take that as a compliment.

Correction: we are not over 17K. We're between 16K and 17K. I think we've only broken 17K once. But enrollments, after our second wave of selective admissions standards, are once again climbing.

As for USM being Tier 3... that just happened in the last year or so, didn't it? Just curious. We're both Doc II's under SREB, as are Ole Miss, Louisville, Ga Tech and others.

One thing I would urge you guys to consider in your discussions (as if our respective administrations ever listen to anything we have to say... LOL), is our demographics. Lafayette is just over 200K, nothing to brag about.

But at a 30 mile radius, it's over 600K. There are lots of small and medium-sized cities in the region. And the Lake Charles-N.O. corridor has over 3M people.

And we have lots of N.O. alums. Because of cultural affinities, we actually have a lot more alums in N.O. than in B.R. So both of our schools have lots and lots of alums in N.O.

Now here's something I would offer for your consideration: rivals boost attendance and donations... all year long, for all games. Rivals boost enthusiasm year-round. Years ago when we were in the small college division, playing KSU in basketball in Lafayette, during a lull our fans started yelling "Go to Hëll McNeese, Go to Hëll!"

Think about that: we're hosting a Big 8 team, and our fans are preoccupied with the regional school down the road.

Of course, McNeese was smaller and academically weaker than we were then, and the gap has steadily spread. Tech got too big for their own britches, and we don't see them very often. So one of UL's big problems is that we don't have an intense rivalry. From some of your comments here, you have sort of a rivalry with Memphis, but not the intensity you had with Louisville.

IMHO, rivalries flourish when alumni interact. With only a few exceptions, rivalries work when alums live in the same cities. Texas & OU alums exchange barbs in Dallas, Michigan & OSU alums argue in large cities throughout the Midwest, UF/FSU/Miami go at it all over the state, etc. One of LSBR's problems with their "rivalry" with Arkansas, is that their alums don't interact, so the rivalry has never really taken off.

If my thesis has merit, with the many alums UL has in Houston and in N.O., I think Houston and USM are natural rivals for us. I think we would all see more attendance, enrollments and donations if we played regularly.

And UL brings good crowds to both schools. Houston was nicely impressed two years ago with our football following, and your fans were impressed with our baseball crowd later that academic year. We think you will be pleasantly surprised with our attendance Saturday... if the hurricane doesn't muck it up.

I understand your financial constraints. And we certainly don't expect you to take a hit to back us.

I guess the point of all this is to ask you and your supporters to simply keep an open mind. In many ways, we don't match up with USM. But in some ways that you may not be aware of, we are equals, maybe a tad better.

So don't let the people here get to you. Underneath the irritation is an intense respect for USM and what you have accomplished. _

I think our AD has already took notice of UofLA. Like I said before, its not every year we get a crowd like you guys are bringing. And this coming off a disappointing season for you guys. Lets look again, Nebraska 2003, Jackson State 2002, MS State 1989 and Tulane 1999. Again we take great crowds to Memphis, Birmingham and New Orleans for Sat games, and get NOTHING in return. To me its a no brainer because look at it this way, had we opened with you guys last year in place of Tenn Martin, its a sell out.

To answer your other question, yes we just moved to Tier 3. We are a few years removed from academic probation. Granted it was over a paperwork issue, but still you are only as strong as your leadership. Thankfully, that leadership has been removed.

[GoGold]

_ You also forget that we are competing against LSU, Tulane, La Tech, ULM, Southeastern, Nichols, McNeese, and Northwestern St. for students. You guys only have MSU and Ole Miss. _

Well its not quite that easy, we have Mississippi Valley, Jackson State and Alcorn State too. We also have one of the best JUCO's systems in the nation along with Texas, or at least thats what I've read, not a scholar on the subject. But I did hear it mentioned last night during the MT/Troy game about how many players were on both teams from Mississippi JUCO's. We have three of those within a thirty minute drive of our campus and another two within an hour.
Now thats not to say I don't realize the difference between a Ole Miss and a LSU or a Alcorn and a Tech. There is no question more competion in Louisiana for college football fans.

[GoGold]

_ having been in both south louisiana and mississippi for many years now and spending time in both, this is my observations.

Lafayette is a growing vibrant city that has tons to offer anyone
Hattiesburg is a bump in the middle of nowhere that has had growth in the past few years because some guttless individuals left the coast after Katrina. - it is and has been a nowhere town forever with the only real thing going for it is a basically commuter college that is fourth choice for most people in the state. - behind miss state, ole miss and lsu _

Gut'less??? How about homeless and jobless? Shocking statement coming from someone from Louisiana. Ever consider becoming a Tech fan? You seem much better suited for it.

With the exceptions of the northwest and northeast I have lived in every part of this country and spent three years aboard. If Hattiesburg only has one thing going for it, it would be its people. There are none better.