2010: Due to Midday Heat Louisiana Moves Game Time Back Where it Belongs

[SlappyCajun]

_ The college football game does not revolve around the Cajun fans and that's what the majority of our fans think. The game was moved up because of TV, which was awesome, now our "fans" petition, cry, write letters, fall sick and get the game moved?? This should be on the segment "Come On MANNN!" No other school in the country would have changed the game time because of the heat. I saw about 50 people wearing jeans.....WTphunk? YOU did it to yourselves people. What's next....no cheese on nachos because it burnt grandma's chin. It's getting refrickendiculous. I smell a lawsuit brewing up in the near future with all this crap. Morris Bart anyone? _

You want a lawsuit. A kid's high school coach in Kentucky is facing criminal negligent homicide charges for letting his kids practice in a heat index of 94 degrees. Those are criminal charges. You want to guess how much the civil suit against the school district will be, probably millions. That is at 24 degrees cooler than game time on Saturday.

Cajun T said half of the recruits who attended the game left at halftime, because it was so hot. Wow, TV is great for recruiting. But the kids who are at the game on their official visit are walking out of the stadium. The kid gets to campus and doesn't even watch the team that is recruiting him play because it is so hot.

I will openly admit that I wrote a letter to Wright Waters. This is a scheduling blunder of epic proportions on his part. You know Sunbelt games will get pushed to 2:30, don't schedule one the first week of September in Lafayette, LA.

Do you think it is a good idea, for college athletes to be playing football in full pads in a heat index of 120 degrees? That's what our guys are doing. Heat related deaths in football are becoming an epidemic. It is not analogous to a plane crash or car wreck. As a passenger, you cannot mitigate the odds of an accident. As a university with the responsibility of your student athletes, if you march them into full pads into a 118 degree heat index you will be held liable, all day every day in court for negligence. Then, we will definitely need the RCAF to foot that bill. Its not safe.

Not that I really care about the fans, I feel like they could have stuck out the heat. But a family with young kids or elderly fans are not coming to the game, it's as simple as that. Also, all the great exposure we got on TV is BS. The game was filmed from the home side and the entire 2nd half there we broadcast what appeared to the viewing public that we had absolutely zero fan support. It was an empty stadium. We should have begged Tech to use their tarps.

All you macho guys who think regional TV coverage is so important, and fans should touch it out good for you. However, with our product on the field, we need to place it to get as many fans into the building as possible.

My 2 cents.

[CajunsHat]

the point i was trying to make was that i dont think anywhere near 100,000 people tuned into watch the game, regardless if the network was picked up in 15 million homes. however, i am sorry for those who are cajuns fans that are not able to watch the game on tv. the radio is still available like it has been for YEARS...i think it is petty that we as fans are arguing so much over this issue. I am glad we get tv games when we do, but i think it isnt great that fans will refuse to go to a televised game because of weather conditions. and it looks poorly when 98% of our students leave at half time because concessions are out of water, band members and students passing out (because of heat exhaustion - not cause they were tired/drunk!!), players needing IV treatments because of severe dehydration, and did I mention that concessions were out of water on student side (including medics who were assisting everyone who was falling ill to heat). that is why the university changed the game time - cause it was overall not worth the tv time. its only a conference game people...besides the people who truly wanted to watch their team on tv who cannot be at the game, who REALLY cares that we gave up the option to be tv??? its not like we canceled the OK State televised game. that is the real, "come on, man!?" statement...

i would rather hear about people argue over stuff that can be changed or help the overall event.... the decision is done and the school has said they arent going to jeopardize the health of students, athletes, and fans. if that doesnt sound like the school cares about something, then i dont know what does? like i said before, IF we are going to ARGUE about ANYTHING, lets argue about real issues that need to be fixed...(like: sodexo, PA system, band, anything else, etc...) just give up on the debate on tv time vs. possible unbearable heat for 2 home games in a row.

[ManAboutTown]

_ The administration at UL had nothing to do with the stAte-UL game being moved to 2:30 pm for TV and they had nothing to do with MT-UL being moved to 2:30 pm for TV. The stAte-UL game was on TV because it was the only Sun Belt game that weekend and by default is the Sun Belt game of the week and apparently the same network feels that MT-UL is deserving of being shown on regional TV. The administration at UL did not "step up" and get us in a position to have these games shown on TV. All they had to do was field a phone call from the Sun Belt Network.

What recognition do we gain by being on TV in front of "15 million homes" but with only a crowd of 15,000 on hand? Did you see any highlights on ESPN of our game because it was on TV? _

The Admin got us into the Sun Belt Conference, impso facto, the admin paved the way for us to be on Television.

[Rebel02]

_ The Admin got us into the Sun Belt Conference, impso facto, the admin paved the way for us to be on Television. _

Nice stretch, but it doesn't work.

[ManAboutTown]

_ Nice stretch, but it doesn't work. _

You know what Reb, you're right. The Admin had nothing to do with us being on Television. None whatsoever. The admin is only responsible for the bad things that go on here. (sarcasm off)

Agree to disagree on the whole topic. There's no way in hell we should have lost that TV game, and that's the way I, and apparently a lot of other people feel. I see both sides of the argument, but again, it was just NOT going to be that hot again. That game was an anomaly. Just like if we would have played in the snow in Sept. It sucks that we had to go through that, but it wasn't going to be a trend.

[Rebel02]

Look, I'm upset we lost a tv game too, but its not like its a game on espn2. You wouldn't hear this outcry if the game were on national tv. Fact is the game was on regional tv and I'm fine with losing that tv game for a larger home attendance.

You know what Reb, you're right. The Admin had nothing to do with us being on Television. None whatsoever. The admin is only responsible for the bad things that go on here. (sarcasm off)

Agree to disagree on the whole topic. There's no way in hell we should have lost that TV game, and that's the way I, and apparently a lot of other people feel. I see both sides of the argument, but again, it was just NOT going to be that hot again. That game was an anomaly. Just like if we would have played in the snow in Sept. It sucks that we had to go through that, but it wasn't going to be a trend.

igeaux.mobi

[Turbine]

I see both sides of the argument, _

I do to.

You know what I find ironic? If the student side had been full the whole experience would have been much cooler, temp wise and fun wise.

[Turbine]

I'm thinking it was for the UL students who stayed through the 4th quarter.

I found a site that claims the record was for 2003 game between Green Bay and Arizona in Sun Devil Stadium where the temp was 106 at the start of the 4th quarter.

In that game the stands were full and since we humans are designed to maintain close to 98.6 the air around them was probably what was stated and the seats about the same.

The reason the stands may have been hotter for UL fans is the stands were almost empty. Oven hot empty.

Packed fans in the seats tend to shade the stands whereas exposed metal and cement tend to bake. Ever touch your dash board or the top of your car on regular summer day?

Some have asked how do other schools in the south survive a 2:30 pm game? They fill the stands.

UL needs to make game attendance priority one when they put new students through orientation. It would be the cool thing to do.

jmo

[LSUTiger4RaginCajuns]

I've seen conflicting forecasts for Saturday night's game. Accuweather shows high of 92 and sunny.

One of the local forecasts showed high of upper 80's with 30% chance of rain.

[Hammer58]

_ I'm thinking it was for the UL students who stayed through the 4th quarter.

I found a site that claims the record was for 2003 game between Green Bay and Arizona in Sun Devil Stadium where the temp was 106 at the start of the 4th quarter.

In that game the stands were full and since we humans are designed to maintain close to 98.6 the air around them was probably what was stated and the seats about the same.

The reason the stands may have been hotter for UL fans is the stands were almost empty. Oven hot empty.

Packed fans in the seats tend to shade the stands whereas exposed metal and cement tend to bake. Ever touch your dash board or the top of your car on regular summer day?

Some have asked how do other schools in the south survive a 2:30 pm game? They fill the stands.

UL needs to make game attendance priority one when they put new students through orientation. It would be the cool thing to do.

jmo _

Arizona lacks the high humidity that we have hear in LA. I spent a lot of time in the western desert and while temps over 100 degrees are common and uncomfortable the low humidity does make a difference.

[raginsaints]

The student section at Cajun Field has absolutely no protection from the sun. Sun Devil Stadium has an upper bowl all around so I'm guessing that makes a difference.

[LifeTimeCajun]

I still would like to have seen the actual thermometer that read 118.

igeaux.mobi

[ULtimateCajun]

Honestly how many people watch the sun belt game of the week? I'm curious. What kind of numbers do we get? It can't be all that great. So 200 in change won't get to see us play on CST3. I'd rather have butts in the seats. Jmo.

igeaux.mobi

[HelmutVII]

_ I'm thinking it was for the UL students who stayed through the 4th quarter.

I found a site that claims the record was for 2003 game between Green Bay and Arizona in Sun Devil Stadium where the temp was 106 at the start of the 4th quarter.

In that game the stands were full and since we humans are designed to maintain close to 98.6 the air around them was probably what was stated and the seats about the same.

The reason the stands may have been hotter for UL fans is the stands were almost empty. Oven hot empty.

Packed fans in the seats tend to shade the stands whereas exposed metal and cement tend to bake. Ever touch your dash board or the top of your car on regular summer day?

Some have asked how do other schools in the south survive a 2:30 pm game? They fill the stands.

UL needs to make game attendance priority one when they put new students through orientation. It would be the cool thing to do.

jmo _

In order for your theory to work the people would have to be in the stands BEFORE the seats and concrete were exposed to the sun. The concrete and seats were exposed to the heat all day and got hot. The mass of the concrete acts as a heat capacitance and it radiates heat until it reaches equilibrium with the ambient air temperature. I would suspect that that would be several hours after the sun goes down. The fans on the student side were in fact baked by the hot stadium seats/concrete radiating heat from below and also from the sun above. A no win and dangerous situation.

Stadiums that are not built into the ground have the advantage of radiating heat to the air below the seats and air above the seats and they cool off much faster.

[DrumRoll]

BRING A FRIEND PROGRAM

Every "Season Ticket Holder" that brings a friend gets a red ribbon to wear on game day, or even better, a Fleur-de-lis pin that is game specific. Collect em, install them on your hat, collect 1 for each home game and turn them in for the special "Friend of UL" badge...

Or, we can encourage the students to bring these mannequins to the game, and hand out an award at half time for the best dressed Fake Fan.