Correction: There has never been a ULL
In 1995, the state of Louisiana passed legislation allowing the universities of its University of Louisiana system to rebrand themselves. Southwestern Louisiana became University of Louisiana ... at Lafayette and Northeastern Louisiana became University of Louisiana at Monroe in the next four years. All of both schools' modern headlines came under those monikers: ULM was ULM when it beat Alabama, it was ULM when it made headlines in changing its mascot from Indians to Warhawks and it was ULM when it joined the Sun Belt in 2001. ul was ULL when it joined the Sun Belt in 2001 and it was ULL when it was good in the early 2010s under Mark Hudspeth. Nationally, both of those schools are known as UL/UL Lafayette and ULM/UL Monroe.
Now the Ragin' Cajuns are trying to tell you the University of Louisiana is coming to Starkville. Even though the law tells you such a thing does not exist.
That law in 1995? It states the schools must reference their host cities in their name.
Yet, UL Lafayette athletics is ignoring it. It's important to mention that the in-state debate has skewed toward the law not applying to athletics -- plus, ULM inexplicably hasn't fought that hard and allowed this to happen. It's so clear that this is nothing more than a branding effort -- why would a university rebrand itself unless it has something to gain? -- and I'm sure there are things to gain by labelling yourself as the flagship university of a state as prideful as Louisiana.
In my opinion, this is a simple matter. UL Lafayette is who you are to the majority, just like the University of Texas at Austin is Texas and the University of Mississippi is Ole Miss to the grander college football world. People would look at me funny if I referenced either of those two schools as the former name, just because it's weird; just like it's weird to reference a standalone University of Louisiana when the majority has never known one to exist.
(Hello, friends from the bayou. I'm sure there's some Louisiana person out there who's going to read this, get #triggered and share it out in the UL Lafayette internet so you all can get mad and scream at me, and that's fine. Just letting you know here that I don't care and I'm not gonna respond. I'm perfectly comfortable in angering niche Louisiana Internet; ask Louisiana Tech fans about my take on Johnny's Pizza.)
Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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Originally Posted by Brett Hudson
