How are they confused?

[Frenchie35]

Sounds like Brother Leo!

In the forties and fifties it sounded like everyone of them. (1944-1954). Now that you know old I am,......Roaul, were you there, and when?......

[Turbine]

It is "UL Lafayette" with no hyphen...no? And it is an abbreviation of the full name, not a nickname. I could be wrong here, but that is my understanding.

UL could stand for Underwriter Laboratories (how would you know?) and Lafayette is where you are at, not who you are.

Think of it like this; Lafayette is equal to a given name and Louisiana is the surname.

John Smith is a proper name, but if he goes by John S. it becomes a nickname because no one will ever know who he really is.

"University of Louisiana" is equal to Smith, and while very common it isn't as common as John which is equal to Lafayette. A detective could find a J. Smith before he could find a John S.

Both are caricatures of the real name, so in that regard an abbreviation is very much a nickname.

J.R. is a nickname, it doesn't matter that it is an abbreviation, it's a nickname. I know because I owned it during the Dallas years. Guess what, none of my friends from that era know who I am or how to contact me.

So when you have a University using a "location" nickname and an athletic department using a "who you are" nickname, outside sources don't stand a chance on getting it right.

ps Who you are is more important than where you are, so in that regard athletics got it right.

jmo

[HoustonCajun]

That's just it though, claiming a location based nickname as the "Official" academic name, doesn't work.

Official names should be about "who" you are not "where" you are.

jmo

They SHOULD BE, but we are saddled with a city tag as our official name.

However, we are not the only university that has a sports and academic name. Check out these university (not athletic) websites.
Texas - Texas at Austin, UT Austin
Nebraska - Nebraska Lincoln
Wisconsin - Wisconsin Madison
Minnesota - Minnesota Twin Cities
Nevada - Nevada Reno
The examples are endless.

If what you are saying is if we can come up with a nickname athletically that is legal, why can't we also have a nickname academically, be that Louisiana or University of Louisiana?

Fresno State uses that name academically and athletically as a single reference. Yet, it's official name is California State at Fresno.

Virginia Tech also uses that name academically and athletically as a single reference. Yet, it's official name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College.

What is the common denominator? Neither school uses University in their branded nickname. Why can't The University of Louisiana at Lafayette simply use LOUISIANA both academically and athletically? That would certainly help to avoid all of this confusion over our name.

[Cajun Monkee]

They SHOULD BE, but we are saddled with a city tag as our official name.

However, we are not the only university that has a sports and academic name. Check out these university (not athletic) websites.
Texas - Texas at Austin, UT Austin
Nebraska - Nebraska Lincoln
Wisconsin - Wisconsin Madison
Minnesota - Minnesota Twin Cities
Nevada - Nevada Reno
The examples are endless.

If what you are saying is if we can come up with a nickname athletically that is legal, why can't we also have a nickname academically, be that Louisiana or University of Louisiana?

Fresno State uses that name academically and athletically as a single reference. Yet, it's official name is California State at Fresno.

Virginia Tech also uses that name academically and athletically as a single reference. Yet, it's official name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College.

What is the common denominator? Neither school uses University in their branded nickname. Why can't The University of Louisiana at Lafayette simply use LOUISIANA both academically and athletically? That would certainly help to avoid all of this confusion over our name.

Well said.

Sorry, Turbine, but I think this is the much more effective argument.

[raoul]

In the forties and fifties it sounded like everyone of them. (1944-1954). Now that you know old I am,......Roaul, were you there, and when?......

7th grade thru junior year--1960.

[Turbine]

They SHOULD BE, but we are saddled with a city tag as our official name.

However, we are not the only university that has a sports and academic name. Check out these university (not athletic) websites.
Texas - Texas at Austin, UT Austin
Nebraska - Nebraska Lincoln
Wisconsin - Wisconsin Madison
Minnesota - Minnesota Twin Cities
Nevada - Nevada Reno
The examples are endless.

UL choses to be saddled with it. The law is not a every utterance edict. Establish and vary. UL Lafayette wouldn't be so bad if it were part of a bigger picture in magazines like La Louisiane..

What UL is saddled with is an University and town with the same initial, so extra steps have to be taken so it doesn't appear that the L in UL is Lafayette.

Examples of how your examples use variations in real use:

Texas: University of Texas at Austin, UT, UT Austin, and Texas
Nebraska: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, UNL, and N
Wisconsin: WISCONSIN University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW Madison http://www.wisc.edu/

Minnesota: The U, Minnesota, Minnesota Twin Cities campus
Nevada: University of Nevada Reno

[HoustonCajun]

UL choses to be saddled with it. The law is not a every utterance edict. Establish and vary. UL Lafayette wouldn't be so bad if it were part of a bigger picture in magazines like La Louisiane..

What UL is saddled with is an University and town with the same initial, so extra steps have to be taken so it doesn't appear that the L in UL is Lafayette.

Examples of how your examples use variations in real use:

Texas: University of Texas at Austin, UT, UT Austin, and Texas
Nebraska: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, UNL, and N
Wisconsin: WISCONSIN University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW Madison http://www.wisc.edu/

Minnesota: The U, Minnesota, Minnesota Twin Cities campus
Nevada: University of Nevada Reno

These do not appear to be any different than UL's use of UL Lafayette. I agree, however, that the focus is on Lafayette and not Louisiana. How do you overcome that? I submit that if use of Louisiana is legal athletically, it should be legal academically, IF we don't use University in our name, like VA Tech or Fresno State. We could also use only an "L" to go along with Louisiana, thereby avoiding use of the "U" which requires the city tag. It seems to work for schools like Michigan "M", Nebraska "N", Missouri "M", or Louisville "L". Or you do what the old Big 8 schools did in reversing their initials to KU - U of Kansas and CU - U of Colorado. Using anything that is not specifically referenced in the law, like Louisiana, has been deemed to be legal. We need to think out of the box, decide on something, and have the balls to stick with it. My preference is Louisiana athletically AND academically. Use of an "L" would also work. It will be difficult to win the battle of name use if we blatantly violate the law, like use of UL or University of Louisiana. We need to circumvent the law as we did with use of Louisiana. Will the administration do this is another matter at this stage, given what happened at the ULM game.

BTW, where does the band fit into this. The new uni's have UL Lafayette on the shoulder instead of Louisiana. Seems to me that should be corrected.

[Cajunjeb]

I am all for clarity and consistency...and yes, there are many inconsistencies, but all we do is talk about it. The horse is dragging the last leg.

We have the ability to make some changes with our words. For instance, now the athletic web-site references the Cajuns as SB champions. I believe this was largly driven by our posts and e-mails. We went to the source and the change happened.

Ultimately, the collective is frustrated because ESPN and other media formats won't call us what we want, or the athletic department/university wants. What can we as RP posters, alumni and fans do about it? Absolutely nothing. (I guess you could stop watching ESPN) Why can we do absolutely nothing? Because the University can only suggest, ask and recommend, but not demand. Why can't they demand? Don't bite the hand that feeds you/SBC. ESPN brings the Cajuns national exposure (two national Tuesday night games, one national Thursday night game and all but one game on ESPN3 via internet). Our voice for change stops there.

I just hate to see all of us going over this time after time. We keep running into that brick wall with our words, thoughts and feelings over and over again expecting a different result.

[VObserver]

I am all for clarity and consistency...and yes, there are many inconsistencies, but all we do is talk about it. The horse is dragging the last leg.

We have the ability to make some changes with our words. For instance, now the athletic web-site references the Cajuns as SB champions. I believe this was largly driven by our posts and e-mails. We went to the source and the change happened.

Ultimately, the collective is frustrated because ESPN and other media formats won't call us what we want, or the athletic department/university wants. What can we as RP posters, alumni and fans do about it? Absolutely nothing. (I guess you could stop watching ESPN) Why can we do absolutely nothing? Because the University can only suggest, ask and recommend, but not demand. Why can't they demand? Don't bite the hand that feeds you/SBC. ESPN brings the Cajuns national exposure (two national Tuesday night games, one national Thursday night game and all but one game on ESPN3 via internet). Our voice for change stops there.

I just hate to see all of us going over this time after time. We keep running into that brick wall with our words, thoughts and feelings over and over again expecting a different result.

I agree with virtually everything you said here, Jeb. We can't change ESPN.

BUT: We damn well ought to keep hounding Martin Hall until they provide clarity and uniformity on name issues. Much of our problem in this name issue comes from that source, and it is a source which we CAN influence. Personally, I don't think anyone in Martin Hall has a pair, but if they don't, at the very least they can stop the nonsense of pretending they want what we want and admit they are satisfied letting others dictate who we are.

[Turbine]

These do not appear to be any different than UL's use of UL Lafayette. I agree, however, that the focus is on Lafayette and not Louisiana. How do you overcome that? I submit that if use of Louisiana is legal athletically, it should be legal academically, IF we don't use University in our name, like VA Tech or Fresno State. We could also use only an "L" to go along with Louisiana, thereby avoiding use of the "U" which requires the city tag. It seems to work for schools like Michigan "M", Nebraska "N", Missouri "M", or Louisville "L". Or you do what the old Big 8 schools did in reversing their initials to KU - U of Kansas and CU - U of Colorado. Using anything that is not specifically referenced in the law, like Louisiana, has been deemed to be legal. We need to think out of the box, decide on something, and have the balls to stick with it. My preference is Louisiana athletically AND academically. Use of an "L" would also work. It will be difficult to win the battle of name use if we blatantly violate the law, like use of UL or University of Louisiana. We need to circumvent the law as we did with use of Louisiana. Will the administration do this is another matter at this stage, given what happened at the ULM game.

One thing you won't ever see Nebraska doing is a stand alone "UN" and I doubt we see an UN Lincoln either.

Every case is different.