Newer news flash... attitudes don't matter. If FCS schools want to play FBS schools, they travel... period. We don't have to work out return favors. The idea is not to evaluate where our program has been (in this massive slump due to bad management). It is about getting our act together and doing what we have available to do. That does not include scheduling "FCS away games". I have no problem scheduling a heavily attended game opportunity with McNeese or Southern, but you do not offer return games. They get their benefit out of coming to Cajun Field and taking a shot at us with an easy travel plan for their fans.
(Zephyr) you cannot watch CST and gauge attendance for Southern home games. They position cameras similar to Cajun Field. The student/visitor side is not where you accurately assess attendance. I go to all Cajun Field home games, and for those recast by Cox, I could not believe how bad it "looked" as opposed to the reality of how full the press box side was. Cajun Field needs to figure out how to encourage CST to place a primary camera on the student side, looking back at the press box side, and politely request that "fan shots" include them.
Southern will be "well attended". Part of the draw will be from the surrounding Acadiana area who probably don't normally attend Southern or UL games. Southern fans themselves look for interesting travel opps, and I think Lafayette and Cajun Field very much interest them right now. They see us as beatable and they are excited about it.
As for the risk of the occasional home game against D1AA teams... if we cannot summon up the courage to take on any and every D1AA school, and expect to win... it is time to shut down the program. The "risk" issue should not be in the equation. It is strictly someone who will accomodate you schedule-wise and a nice crowd opportunity.
I believe in using the proper designation for the school. You don't have to like it I have the right to express myself however I chose. Since this site seems to not allow freedom of expression I have to stoop to this in order to use the proper designation. If you want to use UL I have no problem with that. Having graduated when the school was still USL I have been known to use that designation when talking about where I went to school. I am not embarrased about where I graduated from.
Attitudes do matter sir. Why do you think so few larger 1A schools have come to Cajun Field. Has LSU, Florida, Auburn, to name just a few of the larger schools we have played? No they have not. They have no interest in coming to Lafayette to play a game. So in my opinion they have a similar attitude toward coming here as we do to going to a 1AA school. I completely agree with you about having the courage to take on any 1AA school. We should be about to beat them 90% of the time. What was it 10 or so years ago we played North Alabama a Division II school and they beat us. Granted they were the Div II National Champions but gee wheez we should have beaten them. If we are going to play 1AA teams I say make it the Cowboys. At least its a great draw and they are one of the quality 1AA teams in the nation. If only The Cajuns has been as successful on the football field as McNeese has been. We would have been to several bowl games over the years.
Putting cajun in your user name does not instantly give you credibility. We can still smell the BBU stench permeating this thread.
You were the one who said a 1A school doesn't go to a 1AA school to play a football game. Yes it is about money but it is also about one school's attitude toward another. I was just pointing out the LSU's, Auburns, and Floridas have that same attitude toward us. Attitude and money go hand in hand on this issue. I just suggesting if we want to have an almost sure bet sell out 2 yrs out of 3 just play McNeese once every three years at their place. So over say a 10 year period we could have 7 huge gates of say at least 30,000 per game. Can we say that about some of the other teams we could schedule over a 10 year period. What are the odds we could get 7 games with larger/prominent schools at Cajun Field? Pretty high I am sure.
We play 8 conference games and need to schedule 4 others. Of those 4 outside games, two need to be at home so we have a minimum 6 game home schedule per SBC rules.
We play a couple of so-called body bag games a year:
2009 - LSU, Nebraska
2008 - Illinois, Kansas State
2007 - South Carolina, Tennessee
2006 - LSU, Texas A&M
We then play 2 other teams that are either home & home (FBS/1A) or home only (FCS/1AA):
2009 - Southern, Kansas State
2008 - Kent State, USM (away)
2007 - Ohio, McNeese State
2006 - N Carolina A&T, E. Michigan
Seems to me with all of the talk about schools needing to play more regional games, we should have no problem scheduling teams like Rice, Houston, Memphis, Tulane, USM, & LA Tech for a home and home for at least one of the two slots, if not both. These are all teams we have played home and home with in the past. What good does it do us to play teams like Ohio, E. Michigan, Kent State and N Carolina A&T that bring maybe 100 fans to the game with little to no interest from our fans, hence poor attendance and low gate receipts? That applies to all of the above FCS/1A schools as well. If we can't split home games with some of these regional FCS/1A schools, shame on us. If we have to go 2 and 1, there are enough schools to keep a rotation going to have at least one home game a year, not to mention the recruiting benefits from exposure in cities like Houston and New Orleans. Heck, we are able to schedule Kansas State and Oklahoma State at home. Surely, we can once again get schools like Rice and Houston here. Look at the attendance we brought to Houston last time we played. Schools want to play teams that bring fans and help fill the stadium. We do that. If we can't fill both slots with these schools, schedule one of the slots with a FBS/1AA school from Louisiana on a rotating basis, i.e. McNeese State, Northwestern State, Nichols State, Southeastern, Southern or Grambling. That will guarantee fan interest with greater attendance and revenue and keep the money in Louisiana. Then we still keep the body bag games with the huge guarantees and hope for an upset from time to time.
That crowd was as large as it was due to the unique nature of the game resuming after deacades of not playing. Go back and look at the crowds when these teams played ona regular basis and they are not that large.
All of your arguments have been made by your mcneese pals and disputed on this board before. I guess this is just the price we pay for the summer doledrums.
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