With Texas State leaving, we have only 2 games a year that UL can bus to, Ark State, USM, Troy and USA, assuming we only play 2 home games and 2 away. For the rest, we travel. Is East Coast travel more costly than West Coast travel? I don't know.
We would certainly play a much better schedule in Wash State, Oregon State, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Utah State and Texas State plus Gonzaga in basketball and maybe St. Mary's.
A lot of those games will be afternoon games, not all are late night. A much better schedule for our fans than ULM, Troy, USA, GA Southern, GA State, and soon to be LA Tech, although I would miss USM, App State & Marshall. Eastern schools will eventually ban together, the Tulanes & Memphis of the world will move on and we will be left yet again in the dust. It is just a matter of time before other schools from the MWC join like Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, and Wyoming and who knows who gets invited from the Central Time Zone. Even N. Illinois sees benefit in leaving the security of the MAC for the MWC.
So, we double our conference revenue from $2M to $4M for a few years then later double that. We leave the stigma of the Sun Belt, avoid conference affiliation with ULM and LA Tech, improve our scheduling and change the perception of the public for UL resulting in better fan support and even more revenue from improved attendance. It is time our athletic affiliation match our academic standing with Carnegie R1 and our new facilities. PAC 12 vs. Sun Belt. All it takes is a little vision by our leaders and sell that vision to our boosters, fan base and alumni. It just might transform our university.