Originally Posted by
RaginDave
100%. I have seen us play MVSU or Delta State in baseball back in the 80's. I have seen us play countless horrible teams in basketball, I have seen us play MAC and FCS teams in football that I don't care about. I don't care who is on the schedule, I will go to see the Cajuns, it should never be about the opponent, it should be about us. Granted playing a team with a recognizable name may draw in the casual fan, but at the end of the day that is a one day pickup in attendance. You can't play 6 home games vs opponents that are going to draw the casual fan in football, 26 games that will do the same in baseball and softball and 15 that will do the same in basketball. What you can do is try to build the best schedule possible with the cards you are dealt and your fan base needs to get out and support them whether it is MVSU or Alabama coming to Lafayette. We have built a really nice conference with 6 quality SBC west rivals. USM, USA, Troy, Arkansas State, Texas State and even ULM should give us a better boost then the original SBC conference, when you add to that Georgia Southern, App State, Coastal and Marshall and to some extent even Ga State, ODU, JMU we have quality opponents up and down the schedule. You need to fill in where you can. Baseball and Softball have done a really good job of getting quality regional teams here as well as Football has a plan on their schedule, 1 P5 road game, 1 G5 Road Game, 1 G5 home game and one FCS opponent. Basketball has done what they can, but it is a challenge to get quality opponents to come to Lafayette to play us, similar to every other G5 team. Even those that get some P5 opponents to come to their place it is usually 1 quality game sandwiched between playing tons of mediocre to less than mediocre teams.
If I were the SBC commissioner I would do this in Basketball. We have to set up a conference partnership in both men's and women's basketball. Meaning at least so many games per season need to be set up with peer conferences, whether that be CUSA, Southern Conference, Colonial Athletic, Missouri Valley or AAC and if the number is 2 or 4, then half of them have to be at the other teams home. Meaning lets say we set up a deal with the Southern Conference for the East and the CUSA for the West. Teams like Chattanooga, Furman, Samford, Wofford, UNCG, VMI, Mercer ETSU, Citadel and Western Carolina would play our teams in the East in some sort of home and home games. You could take Georgia State vs Chattanooga, that would have been a good matchup, if that is a home game for Georgia State, then they must go on the road to play Wofford. And vise versa for the West. Rice, UTEP, Tech, NMSU, Sam Houston, etc.
I don't have all the details but it appears our conference has done a great job scheduling football and baseball, but it lacks in basketball. Partnering up with a peer conference would help. The other option is to get into as many exempt multi team events and also limiting the number of non D-1 opponents that a team can play each season. It is rare that you are going to get a SBC team to get a major college to come to you, but if you work out deals with peer conferences you can get them to come, specifically home and home matchups or Conference vs Conference matchups since many teams are in the same boat as us. ODU is in a great MTE event this season with Charleston, Colorado State, Davidson, Furman, ODU, Penn State, South Carolina and VT. Troy is in one with Merrimack, Montana and St. Thomas (reclassifying this year), not a great one. Georgia State is in one with EKU, UNC Ashville and Texas A&M commerce (reclassifying). Georgia Southern is got one with Houston Baptist, Rice and WMU. USM is matched up with EMU, Winthrop and Purdue Ft Wayne. ULM has one with Southern, Loyola MD and Omaha. And the SBC has tons of others. We traditionally play one, not sure if we are doing one this year or not.
Their are lots of ways to bring better teams here but at the end of the day it should not be about the teams that are coming it should be about the team that is already here.