Obviously the ESPN money does NOT offset the loss of game day attendance. The MAC is slowly headed to FCS football or less in a decade or so. Their football programs are money pits. They have not built a fan base, conceded it to ESPN. They're shrivling up on the vine. Makes you think for a second this is the master P5 plan. One less conference in the class action RICO or whatever suit that will come against the NCAA/BCS or whomever.
ULM has all Saturday games except ours the Friday of Thanksgiving. If being on television is so great and Bowden is the all mighty savior of ULM football, why are they not on to watch the magic of the RR offense? Build up home crowds? Kind of hypocritical eh?
It could be worse...we could be in CUSA. Shows to be careful what you wish for.
This isn't Maggard's doing. But it is his to figure out...fast.
I agree with everything you stated Jay! I too have increased my RCAF contribution and plan on being in attendance for every game, regardless of the day of the week.
You know that our group has tailgated for many years and we enjoyed doing so very much. However, attending the football game should be, and has always been the primary reason for going to Cajun Field on gameday. I too would prefer Saturday games, but not at the expense of giving up the benefits that the increased exposure has given the University and our sports programs.
Everyone wants the stature and reputation of our University and sports teams to continue to rise, but not enough of us are willing to make the few small sacrifices that we can do to help achieve those goals. Every Athletic Director that we have had has told us time-after-time that the best thing we can do to help get UL to where we all want to be is to BUY SEASON TICKETS and GO To THE GAMES!!!
We as fans only have one or two things to do, LET'S DO THEM!
I'll be living 10-1/2 hour drive from Lafayette this season. I plan on making all 6 home games and the game in Austin. I'll have to fly in for the week day games, risking life and limb along the way.
FYI, I'm in the top 200 of RCAF, and give annually to the Suit'em-Up program that provides tailored suits for the players. I have 4 season tickets. Also have season tickets for Basketball, Baseball and Softball. I'm all in and now is the time for Ragin Cajun fans to be all in too.
Dr. Maggard, Coach Napier & staff and the players have done their part...now it's time for us fans to do our part. Yeah, 3 weeknight games is ____ty, but that's part of being successful and being in this conference. If you want to improve our chances of moving into a better conference, it's on us now. THIS IS OUR SHOT! Will you be part of it or will you stay home and complain about playing week night games?
So while I'm on the proverbial soapbox, I just want to give you some insight into the first time we had a televised home game on ESPN. It was the season of 77', our last game of the year, and we were playing the boys from Lake Charles. We actually waited an extra week to play this game to get on ESPN. Well, I'll tell you this, the only time I was colder in a football game was when we lost to N'western in Natchitoches in 76. That game was played on their low-pile carpet, in freezing rain and they had Sidney Thornton at RB. We lost 7 to 3.
Back to the game with McNeese, it was dry, but the wind was howling. I don't know what the temperature was, but I tell you this, when we came out of the tunnel for the 2nd half, we had our rain coats on and we were wearing socks for gloves! No ____! The game ended in a tie, 9-9. It was our second tie game of the season, also tied LaNeck 21-21. In the McNeese game, John Roveto kicked 3 FG's. He went to the NFL (Chicago) for a couple of seasons, but ended up hurting his knee in a freak accident and that was the end of his kicking career. BTW, the Cowboys were behind 9-3 with just a few mins left in the game. They changed QB's from T. McFarland to Jimmy Morvant. The change in QB's worked to perfection with JM throwing pass after pass moving the chains to the eventual TD at the very end of the game. But their kicker, missed the PAT. I met up with JM at Vieux Chenes a few years ago. He remembered me better than I remembered him. In any case, I hadn't seen him since that game in 77' and we had some time to catch up. He played at Crowley HS and I was at Rayne HS, so we played each other regularly. I went on and on about how well he was throwing the nut on that last drive....telling him how well he was spinning the ball. He told, well I had a thumbtack taped to my index finger. It was filed down, just enough to dig into the cowhide. I couldn't believe it. Part of me said, CHEATER and the other part said that was damn smart of them. For some reason back then, we played with new balls for games and they had a waxy surface. Hard to grip in wet or cold conditions. I was amazed. To throw the ball well in high wind, you have spin it to spiral it. They had a competitive advantage! Well that's a little history that some of you may find interesting.
Please go to the games and support this fine ass program we currently have. We've waited a long time to be in this position and now is not the time to back away. Complain away, no problem doing that because it is ____ty to have 3 mid week games, but we need support now more than ever and there may not be another opportunity.
When I lived out of town, I would take half day vacation for big Thursday night basketball games. Fortunately, I had a 9/80 schedule and was off for many Fridays. Occasionally, I would take off the afternoon of a weeknight game and the morning of the day after. Hope current out of towners consider that option.
Rick, I remember that game in 1976 at Northwestern in Natchitoches. I agree with you that it is the coldest game I have ever been at. I remember Blackjack, Bill C. and I built a fire in a 55 gallon drum on the sidelines just to try to get some heat on the sidelines. After the game, we noticed the hot drum had burnt ring on their new turf! We also ran out of towels trying to keep the footballs dry. To make matters worse, we went into the game 8-0 and suffered our first loss of the season. What a miserable game.
I think all of you players were still defrosting when it came time to play the McNeese game!!! LOL!!!!
Those two years were two really special football teams. Just amazing games.
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