2012 New Orleans Bowl

[VObserver]

I don't see any reason why donations won't continue to increase.

If you don't see the discontent among current long time donors, you are not paying attention. We are tired of the veil of secrecy, we are tired of low expectations by our administration, we are tired of being kept in the dark about plans for the future. We are most especially tired of our administration consistently failing to take advantage of the HUGE marketing bonanza available as a result of our football success over the past two years.

Farmer has NOT done a good job handling success. He has pretty much just watched while natural inertia added to the coffers. T Joe is even worse. He has used our football success to actually cut funding substantially from university funds.

[VObserver]

what are these men supposed to do to satisfy your wanton desires? What in god's name are these men supposed to accomplish with such constraints? What overnight miracle are you guys waiting for? What hail mary pass are you waiting to be completed?

They are supposed to get off their collective asses and give us a PLAN; with timelines and financial requirements for facilities improvements. They are supposed to actually pay attention to what the fans want. They are supposed to PROMOTE funding activities, not just watch in amazement when people give money.

I could give you a very long, very detailed list of specific things they should have done and did not do at the two bowl games that would have cost very little and brought tremendous returns, but you have seen all that before. I could also tell you that I [among others] told them what all those things were well in advance, and they did nothing.

But if you want a one sentence answer it is this: We want our leadership in the University, the Athletic Department and the RCAF to care as much as we do, and to DARE as much as we do.

[ULvictory]

Ik there was about 40k+ wearing red in the dome, but does anybody know exactly how many tickets were sold through the university?

23,500 tics sold

[basinbear]

2011 budget figures: Florida Atlantic 16.7 million (West Palm Beach)
North Texas 18.9 million (Dallas)
UTSA 16.0 million (San Antonio)
UNCC 17.5 million (Charlotte)

These Universities got invites to CUSA strictly because of location in major media markets. CUSA lost Orlando(UCF), Dallas(SMU) and their best University located in Houston, U of H. CUSA was out to rebuild their media market presence. Hence the first 4 schools invited from the Sun Belt were FIU(Miami), FAU(West Palm Beach), UNT(Dallas) and MTSU(Nashville). No other University in the Sun Belt was going to be invited before those 4 schools. Now, WKU MAY be the next invites because of budget size(over 20 million) and possible travel partner for MTSU. But if Arkansas St. gets in CUSA before Louisiana......There is absolutely no excuse to not be completely ready now....none.....and the supporters of this University wil not accept any.

[Just1More]

Tech is moving up because of the promise of fundraising...not actually fundraising itself. The promise was to bring their budget to 20 million and beyond. That has yet to happen. Has Tech gotten in on lies? Yes. Should we brandish our own lies to move our program forward? Sauce for the goose.

1) Tech has not been proven to have lied. When they fail to raise their budget as promised, you can call them a liar. 2) Getting a student athletic fee passed is fundraising. Getting the Cajun Field plans out in front of the public is fundraising. Opening a bank account titled RCAF is not fundraising. Hud's success... single handedly... caused this "groundswell". So, when you ask, "what do we expect of these men with such enormous constraints?" Stop counting their meager chips and play the damn game.

In reality... Hud is a double edged sword for RCAF. Instead of UL's administration seeing the reality of what you have to do to build a private funding system... they've sat back and collected membership cards while Hud did every single bit of the heavy lifting. He not only pulled the program... by sheer will... out of the dumpster... almost instantly (a feat that the likes of you would have also said "impossible - what do you want these men to do under such constraints?") but he became the single face and voice for the entire rally of the Cajun Nation.

That has a very dangerous downside. T-Joe and Scott need to be the face and voice of the Cajun Nation. What do you ask these men do? Get out in front of the wave and take advantage of it. The wave will dissipate... I promise you. We aren't in "hail mary pass" mode. Those are done in desperation before time runs out. Time will never "run out". Only a fanbase's interest runs out.

You and Rebel come back at the end of 2013 and tell us how much more this guy Scott grew our budget. I think we're about to hear, "this is all we're getting... these checks we were getting just stopped coming in at the pace we saw last year... we're not sure why... we're talking about talking about getting a study put together to produce a plan that we might reveal about how to determine what caused the checks to slow down." BS

It is called laziness, fear, apathy, lack of commitment, ignorance, coasting, not wanting more responsibility, happy where they are... and more. And the Cajun Nation isn't going to stand for it anymore. T-Joe and Scott had better start talking to us and telling us what massive measures they are undertaking to keep the momentum. We are way, way behind and most of us are no longer going to blame it all on Ray.

Oh... and show me one of our peers that has Lafayette and Acadiana... the oil industry at their disposal for 50 years... and sat on it? Show me one of our peers that wouldn't take exactly what we had... "massive potential"... and couldn't raise $2.5 million in a year. Interestly, Mosing of Frank's Casing Crew donated $2.5 million a few months ago. He didn't care if UL used it purely for academics or mixed it with academics and athletics. Do you think a single dime of it went into RCAF? You are wrong about the potential for RCAF and this university with athletics. The majority of our "constraints" are self-made.

[CajunConnection]

With so many Bowl games i like to have a interest in the game someway. Last nights game with Fla was interesting since we should have beat them and attendance interest. Tonight's game with Kansas State is of interest to me since we will play them next year. Will have my Phil Steel's mag to watch to see who they have leaving and returning. I know their qb is gone but will check out others.

CC

[Turbine]

In a year of expected budget cuts, the million dollar athletic grab would make sense.

But in a year where UL gave away the horse farm and generated $6+ million and where a student fee passed with athletic help but not athletic benefit, and a donation from Frank's Casing Crew.

I think T-Joe should return the money and give the full allotment that he himself contrived while Administrator of Education.

[SlappyCajun]

Hawk -

No doubt lacking student fees has hurt us?

But, we can implement student fees and we have chosen not to.

Tech also blows your argument totally out of the water. Every move they have made to improve their conference situation has been more proactive and visionary than us. They came to DI-A football after us and have a name recognition and perception that is much greater than ours nationally.

One of the reasons their budget is currently bigger is that they chose to go to the WAC and they received greater revenue from that maneuver.

Also, first I contend that a lot of institutions could raise 2.5 million if they were coming off their first bowl game in 40 years. Many could do more. But more importantly, our program could do better than 2.5 million by making better use of the groundswell associated with our bowl game.

The RCAF, I think has like 1800 members. And, people think that is good.

We played certain teams in the 80's. Schools like USM, ECU, UAB, Tech, etc. Those schools have passed us by.

We played certain teams in the 2000's UNT, MTU, FIU, FAU. Those schools are now passing us by.

In the coming years, we will be playing a schedule similar to what Nicholls State or McNeese played in the 90s.

Maybe its time we stop looking at our limitations, state support and student fees and see what we can do to improve.

It's my contention that we can be doing much, much more amongst private donors. There are people in this town that cut cut one check for 2.5 million. Many of them support our program. But, you can't wish upon your lucky start that they are gonna walk into Farmer's office or the Corner Bar and hand it to him.

People want to bash Tech about Davidson or their arrogance. But here are the facts with fewer students in Ruston, LA. They have positioned themselves better than us. And, put us in a situation where we have to beg for their vote to get into a conference with our old conference mates.

That's reality.

[lxa656]

Ok thanks guys. I was wondering this because I heard on the Sugarbowl that UF had only sold 7,000 tickets and Louisville sold 14,500. I'm pretty sure the Nola Bowl is gonna have more in attendance than the Sugarbowl

Correct me if i am wrong. Arent these BCS bowls, schools are only given 15k in tickets? Meaning, the school cant sell more than that?

[CajunDreDog]

Kansas State has 30+ seniors on this team! They will be totally different next season.