Ragin Cajuns Equipment on Twitter - helmets for next season

[CajunNation]

This is what the FDL means to the state of Louisiana.....






FDL brands Louisiana

[cajunhawk]

FDL is an overused, watered down symbol used for everything. We should phase it out.

[Million$Mullet]

FDL is an overused, watered down symbol used for everything. We should phase it out.

Yeah we should probably use the wrap around Seahawks logo instead. That would look much better.

[Big Poppa]

I worked with a national company for years, and the folks on my team would be from all over the US. When I asked about UL, they almost always say 'the team with the ?????' logo, or something like that, because they couldn't say fleur de lis. But they knew what it was and that it was part of our logo. At least, the ones that I worked with that were sports fans.

How long ago are you talking about? The FDL is really just coming back into the picture since probably around the 60's. For the last 20 or so years it's been that chili pepper we called a cayenne.

I like the FDL over the pepper but it shouldn't supersede Ragin Cajuns. Ragin Cajuns is by far our most recognizable brand associated with the university across the country.

[LaCajunsFan]

How long ago are you talking about? The FDL is really just coming back into the picture since probably around the 60's. For the last 20 or so years it's been that chili pepper we called a cayenne.

I like the FDL over the pepper but it shouldn't supersede Ragin Cajuns. Ragin Cajuns is by far our most recognizable brand associated with the university across the country.

Fairly recently, ~3-5 years ago.

[Big Poppa]

Absolutely wrong. FDL is recognized for many things, in many different places.

You may be right but, east of Breaux Bridge, west of jennings, north of washington and south of franklin it is not recognized as a symbol for our university. No one outside of Acadiana associates the FDL with UL today.

[cajunhawk]

Yeah we should probably use the wrap around Seahawks logo instead. That would look much better.

[Ragin9221]

We are not moving to the FDL anytime soon. As far as a secondary logo yes it works great! I think our secondary helmets should be the FDL just white with the two red strip football helmet, not black.

[CajunNation]

At the end of the day, this discussion boils down to one thing.

There are those who think we should focus like a laser on branding ourselves as Louisiana.

There are those who can't let go of Ragin Cajuns.

You can't have both in a successful branding campaign.


A also believe that Ragin Cajuns absolutely sucks AS A LOGO.

[Ragin9221]

We are overthinking this!! We need a nice, clean, acceptable symbol that people will recognize!! Whether they think it’s Saints, or Catholic Church, or whatever doesn’t matter.

When they see it and they notice that it is on the University of Louisiana Ragin Cajuns then they will recognize it as our symbol!! That is what we use to represent our school.

The fact people recognize it as a symbol for Louisiana is a PLUS!!!

We have branded Ragin Cajuns as our logo!! Great we don’t just have to use one logo we can use multiple logos!! The symbol that we can use to associate ourselves as Louisiana is the FDL!!

[Cajun90]

You may be right but, east of Breaux Bridge, west of jennings, north of washington and south of franklin it is not recognized as a symbol for our university. No one outside of Acadiana associates the FDL with UL today.

Obviously you will find those that don't associate the FDL with our University but what "symbol" do you associate with us? Ragin Cajuns is the moniker. It is NOT the symbol. I understand from a marketing standpoint (athletics) you might want to push the moniker over the symbol but I'll still argue the two can coexist.

I found twenty two yearbook covers that had the FDL on it going all the way back to 1931. Many are associated with the University seal but the 2001,2007, 2010, and 2016 yearbooks all have very prominent displays of the FDL on the cover.

If one wants to argue whether or not the FDL should be a prominent part of our marketing I get it but there is no arguing its historical association and recognition with the University.

Think about this.... our QUAD makeover includes an extremely large three dimensional FDL as its centerpiece.

Bottom line is the FDL has a very long history with the University and it has the support of the administration moving forward. It isn't going anywhere and from the discussions I've had (shortly after T-Joe came aboard) I think it will be fairly prominent.

[CajunProud]

I love the fact that we are having this discussion, and I've seen great arguments for both sides; i.e., those that want Ragin Cajuns and those that want the FDL. Personally, I really like both and don't see anything wrong with incorporating both into the marketing design.

The one element that I haven't seen discussed, and in my mind, is the biggest element; WINNING! We can have a golden turd with feathers all over it as our logo, but it won't make a difference until we start WINNING, and not just winning the CrapBelt. A conference championship alone gets us absolutely nothing. We need to have sustained success and wins over some big time programs. Once that happens, our name will be out there for everyone to see.