2008 Bowl Season Louisiana Snubbed by Indi Bowl

[HoustonCajun]

_ So what this article says is that our university has zero national appeal and the Sunbelt has zero stroke with bowl committees. Josh, please go into the press conference and get answers. _

Unfortunately, we are a hyphenated school in the worse conference in the country and Louisiana-Lafayette, UL Lafayette, U LA LA, LA-Lafayette, etc. etc. is not attractive outside of Lafayette. Until this university gets serious about marketing itself and serious about capturing the Louisiana and UL name, this will continue to be a problem.

LA Tech did not want us in the I Bowl. I would bet that Rice with a 9-3 record did not want to play a 6-6 team from the SBC.

Look at what the other non-BCS conferences did with bowl invites this year:

WAC - Boise State, Fresno State, LA Tech, Nevada, Hawaii
MAC - Ball State, Buffalo, W. Michigan, C. Michigan, NIU
CUSA - Rice, Houston, Memphis, E. Carolina, S. Miss, Tulsa
MWC - TCU, Brigham Young, Utah, Colorado State
SBC - Troy, FAU

I am so disappointed that UL did not get in a bowl. Even worse, an FAU team that finished 3rd in conference was picked ahead of us. UL needs to seriously rethink how it is marketing itself and needs to rethink its membership in the SBC who did nothing to help UL's bowl cause. Right now, I would rather be an independent than a member of this bush league conference. But then again, we haven't even been that competitive in the major sports in the SBC. That is a sad statement for the current state of UL athletics. Our new President needs to make a statement about where this university is going. It certainly needs leadership now.

[Just1More]

_ You can call me names if you want to make it personal, but Today, we are seeing the results of a poor plan. You can sugar coat it anyway you want, but we are staying home because we scheduled above our heads. Just take a look at how the better programs maintain their bowl eligibility, they schedule teams early that they have a good chance of winning before they get into their competitive conferences. If you support this, you are accepting
losing instead of promoting Winning. _

I guess we've scheduled above our heads now for 38 years? You are oversimplifying our problem. You cannot schedule yourself out of all of your issues. A better schedule will develope as our administration orchestrates a total package for football. We cannot improve the schedule, the coaches, the players, the faciliities, the under-staff, the anything... until the president blasts out of his cave with a new UL football mission. We cannot keep operating as a cellar-dwellar and expect the results to change.

[CajunZ1]

_Our new President needs to make a statement about where this university is going. It certainly needs leadership now. _

If this isn't a wake up call for our administration, I don't know what it will take.

Then again, I thought losing to McNeese would be a "wake up call"



It will be interesting to see how the university reacts to this debacle. Will we let it slide under the rug with time? Or face the problems head on? Do we have any reason to believe that the latter is possible?

This negative day could be boosted into a HUGE positive if T-Joe decided to say something meaningful.
Don't fire the coach. Not yet. Publically say you support him. However to keep the job, 7 wins is a must (you don't announce this of course). Introduce the RCAF and read all of that "TillmansNumber1" guy's posts for marketing tips. Have the DA do a front page sports story on the "transformation of UL athletics" which would obviously include some massive facility announcements, as well as some near term goals for success, and how we plan to implement them.

PLEASE. We're dyin here...

[Bankruptcyman]

But I am tired of everyone else getting the benefit of the doubt or having things handed to them that they do not deserve. I seems after 110 years that one day it would be our turn!

[rcarte3]

_ Unfortunately, we are a hyphenated school in the worse conference in the country and Louisiana-Lafayette, UL Lafayette, U LA LA, LA-Lafayette, etc. etc. is not attractive outside of Lafayette. Until this university gets serious about marketing itself and serious about capturing the Louisiana and UL name, this will continue to be a problem.

LA Tech did not want us in the I Bowl. I would bet that Rice with a 9-3 record did not want to play a 6-6 team from the SBC.

Look at what the other non-BCS conferences did with bowl invites this year:

WAC - Boise State, Fresno State, LA Tech, Nevada, Hawaii
MAC - Ball State, Buffalo, W. Michigan, C. Michigan, NIU
CUSA - Rice, Houston, Memphis, E. Carolina, S. Miss, Tulsa
MWC - TCU, Brigham Young, Utah, Colorado State
SBC - Troy, FAU

I am so disappointed that UL did not get in a bowl. Even worse, an FAU team that finished 3rd in conference was picked ahead of us. UL needs to seriously rethink how it is marketing itself and needs to rethink its membership in the SBC who did nothing to help UL's bowl cause. Right now, I would rather be an independent than a member of this bush league conference. But then again, we haven't even been that competitive in the major sports in the SBC. That is a sad statement for the current state of UL athletics. Our new President needs to make a statement about where this university is going. It certainly needs leadership now. _

You say that ULL needs to get rid of the hypenated name to help their prestige. That is not the problem. You say the hypennated name hurts well did you know that USC represents the University of Southern California that sounds directional or regional to me. UCLA is the University of California at Los Angeles sounds just like the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The University of Geogria's offical name is University of Geogria at Athens. In fact I have a friend who is a graduate of Geogria and he has worn school shirts that say UGA and that doesn't stand for the bulldogs name. If you look at scores on ESPN's bottom line a lot of times they will have UGA to represent Geogria instead of UG. In fact you negate your own agreement by the list above. Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, East Carolina, and Southern Mississippi are all directional/regional names but look where they are in a bowl game. At least the SBC got 2 teams in granted one of them wasn't ULL but at least you got in more than one so that is some progress. ULL needed 7 wins and/or a quality win over a BCS team which you almost got over Illinois. Stop the nit picking over the name its not going to change win games and it won't matter about the name. Its what you make out of the name not how you are named that counts.

[Cajun90]

The one thing out of all this is that 7-wins would have assured us a bowl berth. If the status quo remains with the NCAA and the bowls it might be wise for us to suck it up and play only one money game a year then play a AA team down in the bottom of the pool.

Do anything you have to in order to try and secure 7-wins. It looks like in most seasons this is going to get you in a bowl.

[rcarte3]

_ Nothing official, but time will tell.

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=333252 _

Just proves don't believe everything you hear or read when it comes to bowl games.

[DestinCajun]

_ I disagree.

To everything there is a season. Everyone, EVERYONE, has good days and bad days. Last year LSU won the NC, this year they're crying in their tomato-based gumbo.

tomato-based gumbo?

[MetryCajun]

_ The one thing out of all this is that 7-wins would have assured us a bowl berth. If the status quo remains with the NCAA and the bowls it might be wise for us to suck it up and play only one money game a year then play a AA team down in the bottom of the pool.

Do anything you have to in order to try and secure 7-wins. It looks like in most seasons this is going to get you in a bowl. _

How much easier does our schedule need to get? We already have one of the easiest.

[RCAJUN90]

_ Just proves don't believe everything you hear or read when it comes to bowl games. _

It is my understanding that Rice complained about playing us so the offer was pulled? What did our administration do for us?