Opinion: What a joke UL athletics has turned into!

[JamesTheJeweler]

I don't know why some of you are obsessed with making the OP a McNeese fan, or a fan of any rival school. I agree with pretty much everything he said except the stuff about the baseball and softball programs/coaches. I swear, some of you are in complete denial. The only alternative is you're fine with mediocre. The COMPLETE dismissal of fans, students/greeks is insane. So insane, it's hard not to think it's being done on purpose. The level of "just dont give a $#!+" at which this admin operates is insane. The basketball and football programs are burning and there are fans still defending and making excuses for them. I guess as long as we keep seing 1000 fans and dropping at basketball, and 10000 people and dropping at football games, you're ok with that. And hell, why not, this admin is obviously fine with it. They not only not do $#!+ to change it, they do things to sabotage it further! But yeah, let's focus on who the OP is a fan of. Let's put our super sleuth caps on and really dive into that. We can't have any objective people come here and lay out the already obvious truth! Let's throw rocks at him and make the bad man go away. God forbid these programs keep sliding into obscurity, you'll wish you hadn't ignored, defended and promulgated this $#!+ show.

[CajunJack55]

Isn't perfect is an understatement. The guy can coach, but he was recorded offering a recruit $100K. You lay down with dogs, you will get flees. There was no way this president was ever going to approve the hiring of a guy like that. So, all this head banging over Wade is internet entertainment for the McNeese State crowd. I could care less about them.

I'm not supporting Marlin, so fans can vent away. And people that have donated money can vent away as well. Again, we've heard it all before and each person can determine when the time has come to walk away. I'm halfway there today.

Great post. Will Wade is still a douche bag.

[GreatestStory]

I totally agree the university is NOT handling things correctly regarding athletics, but when someone comes in here and says the baseball team & coaches suck and the softball team & coaches suck, they are obviously not informed and I can not take them seriously.

Being objective and being completely wrong are not the same thing.

Are we supposed to jump up and down because he was right about Marlin not being a good coach and just ignore the other nonsense he posted? That is the equivalent of being happy for your kid who made an A+ in one subject and failed the other subjects.

[JamesTheJeweler]

I totally agree the university is NOT handling things correctly regarding athletics, but when someone comes in here and says the baseball team & coaches suck and the softball team & coaches suck, they are obviously not informed and I can not take them seriously.

Being objective and being completely wrong are not the same thing.

Are we supposed to jump up and down because he was right about Marlin not being a good coach and just ignore the other nonsense he posted? That is the equivalent of being happy for your kid who made an A+ in one subject and failed the other subjects.

"That is the equivalent of being happy for your kid who made an A+ in one subject and failed the other subjects."

That's kinda what you did. Jumping up and down about the A (baseball/softball) , but ignoring the F.

[GreatestStory]

Ok, my bad.

As long as one good point is made, everything else can be complete nonsense.

I get it now, carry on.

[CajunNation]

Joke? I got one...

No info on our website for our legendary Louisiana Classics Track Meet. Found this on the ULM website...

https://ulmwarhawks.com/documents/20...Meet_info_.pdf

Pathetic. Inexcusable.

[CajunT]

"That is the equivalent of being happy for your kid who made an A+ in one subject and failed the other subjects."

That's kinda what you did. Jumping up and down about the A (baseball/softball) , but ignoring the F.

You can make points about the program and the administration without hyperbole and exaggeration. Give credit where things are fine and vent away where there is legitimate concerns. JMO

[Turbine]

Few tend comment at length on items they agree with.

So a comment on the portion they disagree with should not be interpreted as not agreeing with what they didn't comment on.

jmo

[Cajunrunner]

Joke? I got one...

No info on our website for our legendary Louisiana Classics Track Meet. Found this on the ULM website...

https://ulmwarhawks.com/documents/20...Meet_info_.pdf

Pathetic. Inexcusable.

While it's not a money sport, Track & Field had a LONG successful history throughout its time for the university. In fact, off all the sports, maybe the most long-term success, especially when you look from about 1970-2002(ish). But also a long history of the university and administration (at least from the time I started paying attention) giving zero ____s.

So I'm not surprised someone else's athletic website may have more information about the big meet we've hosted every year since I don't even know, than we do on our own.

[RedTails]

Objectively think as an SBC G5 athletic director in 2024.

The landscape of college athletics is fundamentally changing on a yearly basis and speeding towards full-fledged semi-professionalism.

Football: Saban's retirement comments and G5 HCs leaving for P2 assistant jobs are the canaries in the coalmine. Our model of finding, developing, and retaining players that fit the culture has been quickly antiquated. You only get one year out of great game-changing players now at the G5 level. That means that every year you could essentially have a new team. How can you fairly judge a football coach when you don't have the resources to retain the players they develop?

MBB: In a conference of 14 teams, only the team that wins the conference is going to the NCAA tournament. Our current HC is not selling tickets, which is not giving us a great home field advantage, which is not helping us attain a high seed that gives us a better chance at winning the SBC tournament. Either find a guy that can or ask the current HC to take a pay cut and ask the RCAF donors paying his salary to divert the released funds to Krewe Allons to attract/retain difference makers.

Diamond sports: Fine for now, but with programs like Oklahoma openly paying softball players $50,000 in NIL/year, LSU buying a #1 preseason ranked team each year, and Greg Sankey actively lobbying for decreased postseason access for G5 teams...not a great long-term outlook.

I'm not excusing the admin, because there's a lot of low-hanging fruit (as Gerry would say) that can be addressed especially when it comes to fan experience...but it's hard to grade them on high-level decisions when college athletics is fundamentally changing on a year-to-year basis.

How Dr. Maggard grades himself is below:
https://ragincajuns.com/sports/2019/10/30/letsgeaux

Two out of the three objectives are academic/student driven. I guess it goes back to what CajunFun was saying weeks ago. What is our goal as a university with an athletic program? Is it to foster and develop student athletes that are a net-positive on society? Or is it to attract and retain the best athletes to compete at a high-level year in and year out. I think in the past it could be a balancing act, but not anymore. And I don't have an answer.