One of my best friends was a four year starter up here at ULM. He'll tell you in a heartbeat that everytime they played some big school, he felt like a whore on street corner. I can't believe that the schools get away with it. The schools couldn't care less what it does to the players moral as long as they are getting these $200,000.00 pay days. ULM was doing good in 1 - AA, even won a NC in 89'. They had no business moving up and have destroyed their fan base in the process. Back in the day you would see lots of cars with Northeast Indians on one side and LSU Tigers on the other, not anymore. My friend does say, however, that his best memory from playing was the game they played us in Tiger Stadium. If we are going to play them, it should be at our place, he felt blessed to be on the field. There is no benefit in being someones scapegoat. Schools that cheat the system by playing so called "home games" on neutral fields should move down. I think the communities would appreciate it and I know most of the players would.
My wife graduated from OoLaLa and I have seen a few games at Cajun Field. 19,000 is about right. That means five Lafayette home games equals what LSU would draw for North Texas, or one LSU home slate equals EIGHT YEARS OF ULL HOME GAMES. It could be worse, OoLaMmm draws less than 10K a game! Yeah, the state is DEFINITELY getting our money's worth supporting this Authement ego trip. Does anyone in the legislature have the cajones to suggest NO MONEY state funds for college athleteics outside of supplements for the Weedwacker (aka Auburn Invitational) and Sugar Bowls?
By year-round presence, I mean, if we renewed the rivalry with Tulane in every sport (not just baseball) that LSU athletic events would be happening in New Orleans at all times of the year, and give the alumni and fan groups there an event to rally around and get excited about (and a football game with Tulane every other year would be the biggest deal, of course). It would get LSU top billing in New Orleans media all the time. It would be a good way to showcase and market LSU to prospective students from the NOLA area, and solidify our athletic and academic recruiting (and if you're thinking that we get all the top scholars from the NOLA Catholic schools, and all the top blue-chip athletes in the city already, I got news for you; WE DON'T!) Yes, it's only an hour and ten minutes away, but it's also the biggest city in the state and a huge entertainment and sports event city. LSU needs a piece of that; maybe not really, really badly, but it would be good to have. And what's wrong with rivalry? And it doesn't have to be hatred in the sense of Captain Ahab and his white whale. Georgia and Georgia Tech hate each other, but wouldn't dream of not playing the game, and after the final whistle blows, everybody's still a Georgian and still an American. It once was that way with LSU/Tulane, and it can be again. Also, parity is not necessarily needed for rivalry. During a 27 year stretch in the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State rivalry, the Cowboys beat the Sooners ONCE, as in one (1) time. Yet the games go on, nobody in that state would dream of stopping them, and a couple of times in the last few years, the Cowboys have rared up and whipped OU's tail. OSU sucked for years, but now they are respectable again, and the rivalry's red hot. Tulane was once respectable in athletics a long time ago, and can be again. Maybe that's what this is really about; some LSU fans thinking another state school having any football success will somehow take away from us. A need to ensure our absolute supremacy by putting the final nail in Tulane's coffin. Not for me; I don't think we have anything to fear from Tulane, and them beating us in football (should it ever again happen) won't change anything. Besides, these events would not take place in a vacuum. Tulane is finally making the necessary steps to improve their athletics program (particularly football) after decades of the absolutely moronic policy of "de-emphasis." Their increase in season ticket sales has taken care of attendance issues. They are in Division 1-A football to stay; accept that and move on. I say, if they are gonna stay, we might as well take a stand to preserve some of LSU and Louisiana's proud athletic tradition and history (which modern day big money in college athletics is wiping out at an alarming rate) by bringing back the Battle for the Rag. If Tulane makes money off of it, so what? We make money too, probably. It's called a "mutually beneficial relationship." We get a likely win against a respectable D1-A team, we increase presence in the New Orleans market, we make a little money, so do they. Everybody wins. Too many of you are not looking at this with any vision; you are blinding yourselves to a unique oppurtunity simply to beat your chest about LSU's absolute supremacy to Tulane and all other Louisiana schools. Think outside the box people!
This was an excellent post...I could care less about other directional schools, save for perhaps Louisiana Tech once in a blue moon to create the same type of exposure for North Louisiana-based fans (Hey, Brady promised a game up at the Bossier facility for Stro, didn't he?)... LSU/Tulane is a rivalry that isn't necessarily one of necessity for LSU, but collegiate athletics is steeped in tradition, and LSU & Tulane reek of it...They bought the materials that would become the two school's official colors after Mardi Gras from the same leftover cloth...They were a founding member of the Conference we still call home, and traditionally, there was no bigger game on our schedule to fans across the state, save for perhaps LSU and Ole Miss... LSU/Tulane renewing would connect the dots, from past to present...and we have to ensure we never forget our history, nor merely serve it up as a byproduct to modern times, bottom lines, and apathetic reactions from fans too young or too careless not to pay attention to the historic ties that bind... Great post, Jetstorm!
No.. last year was the only year that I actually went to ULL games.. I was usually at home watching LSU. The stadium was more than half full, so yes, 19000 is about right.
I think that saying LSU has a moral obligation to play in state schools is wrong, but a financial obligation is closer to the point.. LSU is a state school, so the state has an interest in keeping state money in-state. Tulane is a private university, so they shouldnt be considered in the rotation.
If Tulane and ULM dropped down to 1-aa would it help La. Tech and USL get better players and build stronger programs?
Geez, this tired topic pops up every year..... And the answer is the same every year, LSU has no obligation and no reason at all to play Tulane or any other Louisiana school just because they need a damn payday. Skip's silly-ass policy of playing all these sorry Louisiana D1A schools on a rotating basis every year already proved costly and almost cost LSU a shot at a National title in 2003. LSU's "obligation" is to LSU itself, the LSU players & coaches, LSU fans, and the SEC. Tulane, ULL, ULM, La Tech and all other football programs in Louisiana have an obligation to their respective programs as well but their obligation and needs of their program do not now and never will include a "right" to be on LSU's schedule because they can't sell tickets to their own damn games. In Tulane's case, the Superdome is approximately 20,000 seats smaller than Tiger Stadium which in ticket sales alone equals a loss in revenue of $720,000.00. Then ther is the fact that Tulane would want some "split gate" provision for any game held in N.O. which would mean a game in N.O. with Tulane would cost LSU well over a million dollars in lost revenue. *Exactly how does LSU recoup that loss of funds? *Who does LSU's Athletic Department send a bill to in order to make up that loss of revenue? *Or perhaps some of you don't realize that there are a limited number of home football games each year and each one of them is VITAL to LSU's overall athletic department funding and taking one home game away costs LSU millions of dollars. *While the scheduling of LSU for any of the financially strapped athletic departments of other Louisiana football playing schools may be beneficial to them, in reality, LSU gains nothing from it at all. To play these games against Louisiana schools anywhere other than Tiger Stadium would be stupid on LSU's part and quite honestly any financial problems any of these schools may have aren't LSU's problem to begin with.
LSU playing in-state schools & "keeping the money in-state"..... Whether LSU continues to play ULL, ULM, La Tech, and Tulane on some rotational basis can be debated and it is questionable whether it benefits LSU at all in regards to Strength of Schedule as was proven in 2003 when playing in-state schools destroyed LSU's OOC SOS and almost cost LSU a shot at the BCS Title. What I find interesting is this propaganda that by playing in-state schools that it somehow "keeps the money in-state" as if there is a financial windfall to be had for the In-state schools by playing LSU and getting a check vs. playing some other D1A school and getting the same payment from them. Say LSU plays Troy State and pays them $300,000.00 for the game and on the same weekend ULL, ULM, or La Tech plays Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Bama, or some other D1A school as their "rent-a-win" opponent for their guarantee of $300,000.00. It is a financial wash because any money paid out by LSU to an out of state school is offset by the money paid to ULL, ULM, or La Tech for the same weekend game against whoever they schedule. Then the whole "keep-the-money in state" argument is ridiculous as it is based on the idea that playing out of state schools and bringing "out of state money" back to Louisiana is somehow a bad thing? Since when is outside funding coming INTO Louisiana supposedly bad? The whole point is that La Tech, ULL, and ULM all have a limited number of out of conference games which they can schedule against Major D1A schools. If LSU schedules & pays UAB, San Jose' State, Arkansas State or whoever on the same date that ULL/ULM/LaTech schedules an OOC game with an out of state school (say Bama, Auburn, etc) and gets paid basicly the same thing LSU would pay for a "rent a win" then the bottom line of ULL/ULM/La Tech are all unchanged and unaffected. It is a financial wash. The "keep the money in state" concept is bogus and ignores financial reality not to mention basic math.
First, as a New Orleanian, I agree with everything Mcmikel said in his original post -- couldn't have said it better myself. If Tulane ever gets a Dome game against LSU they will jack up the ticket price to $150/ticket AND force LSU fans to join their TAF in the hopes that LSU and its fans will support its entire athletic department budget. If you doubt that in any way, maybe you should go back and look at what they did when they got their one SuperRegional at Zephyrs Field. As to the above quote -- that's completely off base. RECALL THE TIMING of Skip pulling out of the Winn Dixie Showdown. Tulane got together with the Zephyrs Field brass and UNO's Ron Maestri to put in a Regional bid. Tulane FULLY realized that it couldn't support its own Regional at Zephyrs Field so they made an OUTRAGEOUS Regional bid (1.5x's greater than ANY other Regional bid) with the CONDITION that the bid was only good if the NCAA FORCED LSU to be put in this proposed Zephyrs Field Regional. The rumor of this COMPLETELY SLIMEBALL MOVE leaked out. Rick Jones, Ron Maestri and the Zephrys brass tried to deny it. But, when the Regional bids were granted, the NCAA made a special "comment" that they would NEVER entertain any bid which required ANOTHER team to be placed in a particular regional. There was only ONE Regional that could have applied to. Well, realizing that they had not only been OUTED on their SLIMEBALL bid, but that they were shown to be COMPLETE FREAKIN LIARS over the previous 2-3 weeks, they all started blaming each other. Rick Jones not only tried to say it was all Maestri's fault (I heard him on the radio), he also tried to deflect attention from his SLIMEBALL move by bringing up the fact that LSU has an unfair advantage because of the TOPS scholarships. Of course, he forgot to mention that he's been filling out his roster with those BOGUS FULL TUITION Legislative Scholarships thanks to "certain Tulane baseball friendly Legislators" (THAT is a quote from the Times Picayune). And, unlike the TOPS scholarships, these BOGUS Legislative Scholarships come with absolutely NO criteria so that DICKY JONES could give them to anyone he wants. And, from PERSONAL knowledge, I KNOW that Tulane has ACTIVELY used these scholarships to recruit players in the past. In any event, it was about two weeks after the NCAA came out and said they would not entertain these SLIMEBALL-type bids, that Skip came out and said that LSU would no longer participate in the Winn Dixie Showdown. He said that it was due to LSU wanting a home series against a qualify opponents BUT EVERYONE knew the real reason.
