The Ragin Cajun Brand & Conference Realignment: Rick Jones

[ManAboutTown]

Realignment & The Ragin Cajuns

Listen Here: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/...f-31c85d6bd469
RSS: https://feeds.captivate.fm/ragin-review/

Captain and Chief Creative Officer of FishBait Solutions, Rick Jones, joins Ragin Review for an incredible discussion. Rick's clients include, The World Cup, The PGA, ESPN, MasterCard, The ACC Network, The Olympics, The V foundation, Bank of America, and Wimbledon. He also assisted The University of Missouri during their move from the Big 12 to the SEC.

We start with an inside look at the Mike Alden Report, Rick's responsibilities with Louisiana Athletics, his impressions of the cULture and our potential in the market place of collegiate athletics. We'll navigate so many different topics, including Realignment, the future of the SBC, TV Networks, the viability of the Ragin Cajuns brand, developing a real rivalry, rethinking the GameDay experience and so many more quotable moments. We're proud to bring you this small piece of Louisiana Athletics History!

"I'm looking forward to the day when GameDay comes to Lafayette" [9:13]

"Success is performing to the limits of your potential" [47:34]

"One of the things I've found in Lafayette that's a weakness is, I don't know who your rival is. But I'll tell you who your rival is. It's the school in Baton Rouge. You just haven't accepted it yet." [57:35]

"If I was comparing you guys to App State or Coastal, no disrespect to App St or Coastal, but ____, they're hard to get to; they're kind of in the middle of no where and y'all are easy to get to. " [1:01:32]

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[fanof71]

Rick Jones is a big time player in marketing and athletic marketing. Can't wait to listen.

[RaginReview]

Rick Jones is a big time player in marketing and athletic marketing. Can't wait to listen.

Doing this podcast has been a heck of a lot of fun. Very rewarding in so many ways. It's also a lot of work if you want to do it right. This is the kind of interview that reminds us why it's so great to have the opportunity to bring information to our fan base. You won't hear anything like this anywhere else.

I think I speak for all 3 of us when I say, we are proud to bring this bit of work to y'all. Our fanbase needs to hear this kind of stuff.

[ManAboutTown]

Agreed. Please share this with as many Cajun fans (or potential Cajuns supporters/students/legacies) that you guys can. Not only does it help spread the word about the podcast, but having an outsider see the potential and the future of Ragin Cajuns athletics, someone that was involved in the regime change here, will help heal our low fan base self esteem. We need to bring everyone back, we need to cultivate new supporters, we need to get enrollment up, we need to create a destination here. But most importantly, we need to sell the belief that it can happen here.

[cajuns80]

This is easily the best episode y'all have put out. Great work

[Esqueleto]

Listening now. Absolutely fantastic. Great job, y'all. Never disappoint.

[ULvictory]

This was a fun interview. Rick brings a whole load of knowledge to college sports that most fans don’t even think about. We got to hear how the marketers really strategize their plans through his insights.

[CajunT]

Rick Jones is a big time player in marketing and athletic marketing. Can't wait to listen.

Alden brought him in as a consultant when he was hired.

[bbernard6]

This was easily the best episode you guys have put out to date! Great insight by a true professional! If an outsider sees it and believes it, there is no reason our administration and fans can't do the same!

[ULvictory]

This was easily the best episode you guys have put out to date! Great insight by a true professional! If an outsider sees it and believes it, there is no reason our administration and fans can't do the same!

Thanks!

[RedTails]

Great listen. Some things that stood out to me:

1. Biggest external threat athletics faces moving forward is convincing millennials and newer generations to come out to games.

2. His point that our fanbase is missing Gen X'ers due to oil bust in 80s.

3. Gameday experience has to be way better (ours is not good)

4. Liked his idea of non-revenue generating sports being in different conferences to save money.

Refreshing to hear about the big picture from someone who knows his stuff. Loved his perspective, stories, and knowledge.

[HoustonCajun]

Awesome interview! And, you ended with the right question. Just what are UL's conference ambitions? To join the AAC, to remain in an expanded SBC and win the conference for a few years in a row before moving on, to build an entertainment complex with the city along with the stadium renovations, to stair-step our way through all of this? What is our Master Plan for the next 5-10 years to take UL to another level? Rick said that all great programs have rivals. We lost ours with LA Tech and don't have one now. I found it interesting that he thinks UL should perceive itself as Louisville and VA Tech did in building its programs and make LSU our major rival as we are the #2 school in the state and are on the verge of Doctoral 1 status academically. We need to get our university and fans to think of UL at that level. I think in many ways, our membership in the Sun Belt hurts our perception and holds us back. We need to better utilize our unique culture and geographic location. We need to create a better fan experience at our games. An expanded SBC may still be our best short term solution, but we should have a higher level goal and a plan to achieve that goal.