Tulane Game Week (pregame)

[SlickRick]

You sure are. And can have an opinion too. As can everyone else.

Bless your heart...

[zeppelincajun]

Yes but I'm commenting on the sheer amount of _____ing about what's not in our control only having people think we can control it.

You specifically responded to me so I will ask you at what point did I say we had control of this? I am pushing back against the fallacy that this is good for us. I’d also like to point out that you don’t have to be in control of something to acknowledge it for what is. I am simply not willing to engage in the mental gymnastics others want to do to convince themselves that this is actually a net positive for us. The national exposure is not comparable long term to the engagement we are losing with our community.

[facelessjonmoon]

That is a complete lie. Our attendance steadily climbed in the Napier years. The narrative that the community didn’t respond to the on field success of his tenure is an embarrassing narrative pushed by lazy people to cover up for their failures. People simply didn’t show up in the numbers that some people would have expected of Top 25 teams. Biggest contributing factors to this were atrocious game day operations (everyone I’ve spoken to who no longer attends our games doesnt do so for that reason) and undesirable game times and weekdays. Our highest average attendance since 2015 or 2016 actually came in 2021 (Napier’s last year and most successful season). That attendance would have been even higher if we had cleaned up our operations and not had 3 midweek games and an 11 AM Homecoming. We had 6 games to display to Acadiana the height of our program. People were only able to get the full experience of the Louisiana football party twice. That absolutely kneecapped any fanbase gains we could have made. But boy didn’t we cash in on that public exposure the next year right. 7,000 strong at the Troy game. Fanbase stronger than ever.

Yep.

The 2020 covid year and the 2021 mid week schedule were absolutely brutal for attendance

3 mid week home games was total horse ____ for season ticket and season long tailgate paying customers

[Turbine]

Lifestyle changes change lifestyle.

If you want your fanbase guaranteed. Then make football a guaranteed part of their lifestyle.

Only consistency can regrow what was lost.

"Louisiana Saturday Nights"

If ESPN 3+U2 time changes makes them have to think about it, the battle is already half lost.

[Duckster]

In defense of the 2021 season attendance, in addition to what's been written about the mid-week games the COVID spreads were still a damper. Sure the SBC Championship game had what, about 33,000 attending when the Omicron spread was getting underway? All things considered, at that time I thought that was a good number.

Every D-1 conference has eagerly turned control of college football over to the television networks directly leading to conference consolidation and trashing of long time traditions which does nothing to improve student athlete quality of life or the fan experience who pay the bills. This is nationwide not just here in Cajun Nation. So more crappy kick off times are in our future because the TV networks are not in the business of pleasing fans or student athletes. Regardless of all that, we need to beat Tulane and we need to do our best moving the football program to become competitive for the CFP ASAP.

[Jacob81]

This pretty much sums up the problem with this fan base. We want to be big time but complain about the cost involved. Want to be respected and get national exposure but want all our games at 7:00 on Saturday night.

There’s not a single team in the country that sets their game times and not a single team that plays every game at the same time every week. Like Cajuns football should be like church. Saturday at 7:00 will make the stadium full. We don’t want national exposure, just Saturday at 7:00. We will eventually fill the stadium that way. Then when the stadium is full we will be great and become a national power. I don’t think it works that way.

LSU at SC 11:00 Saturday and game day is there. Think SC or lsu fans are complaining?

If game day ever came here we’d have people upset that their tailgate spots got relocated. I mean the excuses we make and the fingers we point for our lack of being big time is ironic.

And like I’ve said before in other threads, RP is supposed to be the diehard cajun fans. Guess we’re about 100 deep diehards

[jaxmc1023]

National exposure on a weeknight does nothing for us. Being on national TV gives us 3 hours for ESPN to call us "those crazy Louisiana Cajuns" while we play Ark State or someone. I'm sure that is super great to some people on here but college-aged viewers don't give a crap about Cajun heritage or whatever we're trying to promote on a Thursday night on ESPN2. We've been playing midweek ESPN games for a decade and nothing has changed..

Do what it takes to pack your stadium. If it means never being on national TV then so be it.

[zeppelincajun]

This pretty much sums up the problem with this fan base. We want to be big time but complain about the cost involved. Want to be respected and get national exposure but want all our games at 7:00 on Saturday night.

There’s not a single team in the country that sets their game times and not a single team that plays every game at the same time every week. Like Cajuns football should be like church. Saturday at 7:00 will make the stadium full. We don’t want national exposure, just Saturday at 7:00. We will eventually fill the stadium that way. Then when the stadium is full we will be great and become a national power. I don’t think it works that way.

LSU at SC 11:00 Saturday and game day is there. Think SC or lsu fans are complaining?

If game day ever came here we’d have people upset that their tailgate spots got relocated. I mean the excuses we make and the fingers we point for our lack of being big time is ironic.

And like I’ve said before in other threads, RP is supposed to be the diehard cajun fans. Guess we’re about 100 deep diehards

Who in this thread is talking about just complaining and not supporting? I haven’t seen a single person say they will no longer be attending the game (other than those who have commitments in the morning). Acknowledgement and refusing to let someone tell you a negative is actually a positive is not complaining. It’s being truthful.

Merely having all our games at a certain time won’t magically heal our attendance. Just as winning won’t. Game operations won’t. Perfect weather won’t. Opponent won’t. But all of these things are a factor in who decides or is able to show up. Weekday games will be a negative factor. 11 AM games (especially in September) will also be a negative factor.

This fanbase is in the state it is in because of a failure on the part of this administration and university to engage the community. The current state of college football (NIL, transfer portal, TV contracts forcing undesirable slots, especially on G5s) is exacerbating the issue, but those with better connections to their communities going in to this era had a better chance of weathering the storm. We were ill prepared, and it is showing. No amount of throwaway mentions on College Gameday or halftime reports on ESPN will change this. Reengaging the people within a 40 mile radius of Cajun Field will. Trying to sell them season tickets where half of the games might end up on weeknights is not a boost for that mission. It’s not unsupportive to acknowledge that.

[zephyr]

You specifically responded to me so I will ask you at what point did I say we had control of this? I am pushing back against the fallacy that this is good for us. I’d also like to point out that you don’t have to be in control of something to acknowledge it for what is. I am simply not willing to engage in the mental gymnastics others want to do to convince themselves that this is actually a net positive for us. The national exposure is not comparable long term to the engagement we are losing with our community.

We've lost the engagement in our community long before an 11 kickoff

[zephyr]

That is a complete lie. Our attendance steadily climbed in the Napier years. The narrative that the community didn’t respond to the on field success of his tenure is an embarrassing narrative pushed by lazy people to cover up for their failures. People simply didn’t show up in the numbers that some people would have expected of Top 25 teams. Biggest contributing factors to this were atrocious game day operations (everyone I’ve spoken to who no longer attends our games doesnt do so for that reason) and undesirable game times and weekdays. Our highest average attendance since 2015 or 2016 actually came in 2021 (Napier’s last year and most successful season). That attendance would have been even higher if we had cleaned up our operations and not had 3 midweek games and an 11 AM Homecoming. We had 6 games to display to Acadiana the height of our program. People were only able to get the full experience of the Louisiana football party twice. That absolutely kneecapped any fanbase gains we could have made. But boy didn’t we cash in on that public exposure the next year right. 7,000 strong at the Troy game. Fanbase stronger than ever.

Umm. Unless you want to look again, our attendance under Hud was more than Billy and that's taking out the covid year. It did not "climb" at all. I agree that his success did not lead to the attendance success that you'd attribute to a winning coach but your first sentence is purely false.

[zephyr]

Who in this thread is talking about just complaining and not supporting? I haven’t seen a single person say they will no longer be attending the game (other than those who have commitments in the morning). Acknowledgement and refusing to let someone tell you a negative is actually a positive is not complaining. It’s being truthful.

Merely having all our games at a certain time won’t magically heal our attendance. Just as winning won’t. Game operations won’t. Perfect weather won’t. Opponent won’t. But all of these things are a factor in who decides or is able to show up. Weekday games will be a negative factor. 11 AM games (especially in September) will also be a negative factor.

This fanbase is in the state it is in because of a failure on the part of this administration and university to engage the community. The current state of college football (NIL, transfer portal, TV contracts forcing undesirable slots, especially on G5s) is exacerbating the issue, but those with better connections to their communities going in to this era had a better chance of weathering the storm. We were ill prepared, and it is showing. No amount of throwaway mentions on College Gameday or halftime reports on ESPN will change this. Reengaging the people within a 40 mile radius of Cajun Field will. Trying to sell them season tickets where half of the games might end up on weeknights is not a boost for that mission. It’s not unsupportive to acknowledge that.

You can say what you want to about to about the administration and to be honest, I agree but this fanbase has been on a consistent downturn for years. Blame it on the administration all you want and much of it is warranted but the fact is this community doesn't support the cajuns as much as it should. There are other factors at play here outside of the administration.

[Turbine]

This pretty much sums up the problem with this fan base. We want to be big time but complain about the cost involved. Want to be respected and get national exposure but want all our games at 7:00 on Saturday night.

There’s not a single team in the country that sets their game times and not a single team that plays every game at the same time every week. Like Cajuns football should be like church. Saturday at 7:00 will make the stadium full. We don’t want national exposure, just Saturday at 7:00. We will eventually fill the stadium that way. Then when the stadium is full we will be great and become a national power. I don’t think it works that way.

LSU at SC 11:00 Saturday and game day is there. Think SC or lsu fans are complaining?

If game day ever came here we’d have people upset that their tailgate spots got relocated. I mean the excuses we make and the fingers we point for our lack of being big time is ironic.

And like I’ve said before in other threads, RP is supposed to be the diehard cajun fans. Guess we’re about 100 deep diehards

Those scools aren't starting from scratch. Nor are they tripping on the heels of decades of student body alienation.

Louisiana is in "re-growth" mode and can't afford to pretend that doing it like everyone else because everyone else is doing it is going to work.

Louisiana will only succeed long term if they can somehow find a lifestyle consistency model.

[R1Letterman]

If it is for money? Will espn show us and break down the numbers? MLB Baseball more and more has gone away from day games, because we are told tv makes more money at night. The debate was on at night. Cant think of much that prefers morning to eveniny coverage. So how then are we now the only ones suddenly who make more money with an early timeslot?

[UL_Cajuns]

But we all can agree Geaux Cajuns forever! Can’t wait for this game regardless of the time.

[CrazyCajun]

National exposure on a weeknight does nothing for us. Being on national TV gives us 3 hours for ESPN to call us "those crazy Louisiana Cajuns" while we play Ark State or someone. I'm sure that is super great to some people on here but college-aged viewers don't give a crap about Cajun heritage or whatever we're trying to promote on a Thursday night on ESPN2. We've been playing midweek ESPN games for a decade and nothing has changed

Do what it takes to pack your stadium. If it means never being on national TV then so be it.

We were ranked in the top 25 for 2 years in a row, the conference is getting multiple teams in the top 25 and battling to be the top G5 conference but you’re right, nothing has changed with this model. Not sure how long you have been around but the sun belt champion has had an overall losing record when the conference started.