Wow. This is almost getting too much to take. Losing good players to NIL and other poaching and now moving the best home game in years to an 11 am kickoff. I feel like we, the fans of G5 schools, are the red-headed step children and inconsequential afterthought of college football. This is getting ridiculous. Are they trying to make us quit being fans of college football?
UL played great against Kennesaw State. I had flashbacks of the Napier years of dominating defense and powerful running game. We certainly have momentum and a lot of anticipation for the Tulane game. Lots of inquiries from casual fans about tickets to the Tulane game. Riding this momentum and enthusiasm, Brian Maggard yesterday at 5:30 pm set out a text asking everyone to give $10 a month to the NIL collective. Then today at noon he announces that we have an 11 am kickoff for the Tulane game.
I remember another highly anticipated home game a few years ago got moved to an 11 am kickoff. The Boise State game. We put on a valiant tailgate attempt but it was not really tailgating. The game was very hot and they were carting people out of the stands that had heat related issues. I watched the second half from the breezeway near the concessions. I wonder what ESPN would do if we said no? Do we want to be on ESPNU that badly? The football fans that want to watch UL/Tulane can find it on ESPN+. How many casual fans will watch the game on ESPNU? So we give up a great home game against an in-state rival for what?
At 0800 Light up the big screen with some classic SLI, USL and UL games of the past.
3x5' flag with our bad ass helmet on it to the first 1000 (if too many), make it 500, if too many, make it the first 123 souls through the gates. 123 rep'n our Program's history of Football since 1901.
Format the flag with simply the helmet on a white background.
Since espn+ became a thing, playing these games at 11:00 am or on a week night on “National” TV are not a positive.
Tons of people don’t have ESPNU, and playing there when ABC, FOX, ESPN, ESPN2, the SEC Netowork, the ACC Network, the Big 10 Network, CBSSports Channel, and FS1 all have games on at the same time means absolutely ZERO as far as exposure and growing the brand.
Nobody will watch this game that didn’t plan to do so already. And the ones that can’t go and will watch on ESPNU, would have watched it in the originally scheduled time slot on espn+
This is awful news. And another kick to the balls for the fan base.
Speaking of balls, someone in Athletics need to learn to say 'no' to this BS and the SBC too
...
Think of incentives to get the attendance back to where it was going to be. The thought for one sec that this is a good time slot for us "get exposure" is living in a dream world.
Tulane|Louisiana under the lights would be 20x more in our favor.
Since this option no longer exist and we now play before lunch, better make that commerative Cajuns Football flag available to the first 1000 souls and nothing less.
The SBC and UL have been burned repeatedly by the espnU trap. We've thrown away countless attendance worthy games as a conference and a university to be on "National" espnU.
It's time for the conference as a whole to demand a new contract or at the very least plan on standing firm in the next negotiation with espn about no more time changes for espnU.
We must start making decisions in a way that is best for the current fan base of EVERY SBC school.
What comes with the 11am spot on ESPNU?
1. Gameday will discuss a little, even if its just a pick em.
2. Greater chance highlights will be shown throughout the day during pre-game and halftime studios for all ESPN games.
3. Exposure.
4. Less competition for eyes compared to primetime.
If our goal is Playoff, you want to win big games with a lot of eyes watching, and a lot of eyes watching highlights the rest of the day.
Other games at 11am:
NC State at Clemson (ABC)
Florida at Mississippi State (ESPN)
Kansas at West Virginia (ESPN2)
Tulane at Louisiana (ESPNU)
Villanova at Maryland (Big Ten Network)
Charlotte at Indiana (Big Ten Network)
JMU at North Carolina (ACC Network)
Houston at Cincinnati (FS1)
Kansas at West Virginia
Rice at Army (CBS Sports Network)
Marshall at Ohio State (Fox)
Notable Games not in the 11am Window:
UCLA at LSU
Arkansas at Auburn
Vanderbiult at Missouri
Miami OH at Notre Dame
USC at Michigan
Arizona State at Texas State
Georgia Tech at Louisville
Utah at Oklahoma State
California at Florida State
Northwestern at Washington
Miami at South Florida
Tennessee at Oklahoma
Baylor at Colorado
Kansas State at BYU
Timing for bye week proves to be even better with Francine saying "Allons Cajuns" in 2 days.
& dare I say it out loud? Stop with the freaking pouting. ESPN owns that right., it sucks but geez. Have nearly 2 weeks to prepare/adapt accordingly to game time.
& it's a YUGE game, Pretend you are a US Marine-----no more damn pouting et find a way to adapt et overcome.
Most of the 11a kick schools (12 noon eastern) seem to attract full houses or nearly full houses for the early game. As a fan base, they get it, its called loyalty and priority to a school. Here, however here there is a lack of priority and loyalty. UL has managed to loose an entire generation of fans by being, well....UL. At some point UL has got to start doing what is best for UL and not ESPN (especially an 11a kick off).standing up for itself to do what's right will build fans loyalty and build the priority of going to a UL game faster than anything else.
Man y'all act like we’re the only school playing at 11 am. Yeah the time sucks and I’d rather a night game but this is how it’s been for a while now. We’ve played many games at 11 starting the Covid year. Get there early. Have breakfast beers. Get in the game and raise hell. Party after the game back at the tailgate spot.
Forecast high of 88, real feel, 100 degrees. Lovely.
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