As was stated, attitudes have nothing to do with the schools you mentioned not coming to Cajun Field. It is about the money. The very largest football programs, including those you described, gather a buttload of money each and every game. They pay out more to mid majors for visiting than the mid majors can make at their own home game. BCS schools are not looking, nor should they, for home and away opportunities with teams ranked below 80. The teams needing money are soliciting these OOC giants and the giants are only complying because that kind of money is no big deal to them, they need schedule plugs, and they like tagging an automatic W on their wall.
McNeese has been successful in D1AA and is a benefactor of easier transfer and admissions rules. That isn't the whole deal, but it is the biggest part of it. When a D1A school finds itself in the cellar of its division, it will easily be challenged by the better D1AA schools. It isn't a matter of talking about how competitive we are... it is a matter of making sure we are not vulnerable to a FCS school matchup. That is our problem and our problem alone to resolve. I do not "mind" scheduling McNeese or Southern at home... for the reasons mentioned. But, there is no "throwing either a bone" for anything.
There are some valid arguments against scheduling games with FCS schools... but "away games" with them... absolutely never... the AD should be fired if it is allowed.
I was at most of those games in the 60's thru what the early 80's and the main reason they got small was because McNeese kept beating us and the Bulldog/Ragin Cajun fans stopped coming. At one point if my memory serves me they beat or tied us 9 or 10 years in a row. That happened mostly in the 70's and early 80's. In the 60's we would win some then they would some and this kept the crowds up. The last McNeese/USL, (yes it was still USL then so don't censor me), at Cajun Field before the 2007 game there were probably 2 to 3 times more Cowboy fans there than USL fans. In fact many people from Lake Charles were sold seats that should have been USL season ticket holder tickets but were never sold that year. They sent these to McNeese who sold them for the game. The good thing for us is we beat them and they probably had the better team. I think now it would be more like the 60's when we would win 2 or 3 in a row then they would win 2 or 3 in row. That is what keeps up the interest.
I would agree McNeese has somewhat easier admission rules but they generally do not get lot of tranfers from the 1A level. Some years they do like this season they have about 5 or 6 which is the most I have seen in a number of years. They tend to recruit for the most part some of the same players we do then redshirt them. In fact living in LC for 32 years now I have gone to a lot of games and known some of the players. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of 1A transfers they gotten that made what I would call a major impact on the program. For the most part their success has been from their own recruits.
I never said I was passionate its what I chose to do. You want to call LSUA&MC that is your choice and I don't have a problem with it. I just hope you don't use that term in face to face conversions with people they probably think what the h_ll are you talking about. I tend to use USL because that was the name when I graduated but I do use UL//L. I still call ULM Northeast cause that is what they were called when I grew up. I know an old man who graduated from what was then SLI and he still calls us that.
News Flash, McNeese State can't pay us $600,000, so it's not going to happen. They can't pay us $250,000 to play in Lake Charles, financially it does not make sense period. Regardless of attitudes, this program needs to do what's in its financial interest and playing FCS programs on the road isn't it. End of Story!
That's a good one. There is one thing I can say about the old GSU/SLC days for us at least we won football games as opposed to the now glory days of the Sunbelt or even the last 20 years. Won a couple of conference football championships as I recall ahh those were the days.
The name has nothing to do with the success of a university both on the athletic field and off. Using your logic of a name being a mark of success then say the University of New Mexico should be winning BSC championships. You make yourself a success by hard work not by changing your name. That only works for people in the movies or TV. Its not that I can't handle it its what I am in the habit of calling the school. If I couldn't handle change then I wouldn't have a computer, I would still have rabbit ears on my TV instead of a cable, and I would have a fan instead of air conditioning. No offense though.
I realize they can't pay us that much but how much do we get when we go to ULM? I find it hard to believe its $250,000. I bet McNeese could come up with close to the same amount as ULM and its only a one hour bus ride so the cost to go is very low. The payoff would come from the 2 games we would get with hopefully larger crowds. I am not advocating playing a bunch of FCS programs on the road just POSSIBLY McNeese because of the rivialy of the two schools in the past. If they insist on a home and home or they won't play us then don't play them I was just offering a suggestion. They would probably kick our butt regardless.
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