Would a Louisiana Tech-ULM football series benefit Louisiana Tech?

[DallasDog]

Boy do we know how to beat a dead horse. Nostalgia game? I am an old timer and even went to Monroe to watch TB beat up on them in 1968. I have no desire to play them (Nor ULL or any other old GSC or Soutland foes for that matter).

I don't want to play them either, and wouldn't go to the game if we did. However, for some it is nostalgia. I know several people who were at the NSU game simply because of the old state fair rivalry, and didn't come back after that game either.

If our athletic Admin can get up off their collective ass, there are and have been for several year better options, we simply haven't chosen to take them for all the reasons mentioned on here before and some that probably haven't been discussed.

[Champ967]

I'm not saying we need to schedule them necessarily, but one thing that the blog leaves out is that scheduling isn't done in a vacuum. Playing NLU home and home when you can schedule Notre Dame home and home is silly. Scheduling NLU home and home when you could be playing ULL or MAC team or USA or UMASS is at least debatable. I don't think it's automatic, but I think that's the point where you at least stop dismissing it out of hand. Maybe there aren't great long-term benefits to playing ULM, but there aren't any (that we know about) to playing UMASS either. So do the disadvantages outweigh the short-term advantages (whatever they may be) in that case?

I think you could also argue about switching our FCS home games or money games for a ULM series, but I think those are shorter conversations.

All that to say, the question isn't just "should we play ULM?" it's actually should we play ULM instead of whomever we'd be playing instead. Over the last 10-15 years I think that most of the time the right call of "someone else" was made (look at our home and home series since we last played ULM, even the people that really want this series ought to be able to see that most of those were better opponents with maybe UNLV being the exception). I think our current regional conference has taken some of our better non-conference G-5 home and home options off the table.

Having said all that, you did miss at least one point under the recruiting bullet against playing ULM. Our proximity is actually an argument against playing them in that regard. Anyone we're recruiting that we'd bring in for that game would be able to come to Ruston, too. And we'd much rather recruit anyone at a home game than an away game. If we play in DFW or South Louisiana or Mississippi then we can take advantage of that, but anyone in NE Louisiana we're after we'd prefer to bring over the extra 30 miles to a home game. So there is no gain there. That's kind of the tie-breaker for those who say "what's the difference in playing ULL and ULM?" With ULM you'd get bigger crowds and more Tech fans at the road game. With ULL you get some (probably small) recruiting edge and often a (slightly) better opponent.

This right here is why I'm generally sympathetic to a series with nlulm.

On its own, it sucks for all the reasons spelled out on 05's blog. But as compared to a home-and-home with ULL, I'm for it. And compared to an FCS and a guarantee game, I'm still for it.

Let's say, for example, we were going to play Nicholls in Ruston in year 1, and at Auburn in year 2. I would go to the game in Ruston, and take little pleasure in watching Tech stomp the Colonels. The following year, I would take even less pleasure in watching our Dawgs gets their butts kicked on national TV.

Now let's say we replace those 2 games with a nlulm home & home -- I attend both games and relish every delicious minute of beating the snot out of the injunhocks.

I hear what everyone is saying about recruiting and schedule strength and propping up northeast. I get that. Really.

But as a fan I want to see Tech 1. win games; 2. against teams I dislike; 3. in venues I can easily drive to. A series with Monroe satisfies each of those.

[theprofessor]

There have been sporadic discussions on local sports radio shows and in the press lately about the possibility of reviving the Louisiana Tech-ULM football series. The connection between Tech’s AD Tommy McClelland (former AD at McNeese State) and new ULM head football coach Matt Viator (former head coach at McNeese) led Sean Isabella (Tech beat writer for the Monroe News-Star) to wonder if a series revival could happen (https://twitter.com/ST_IsabellaTNS/s...49422927003648). The Tim Fletcher Show out of Shreveport talked about how a Tech-ULM series could lead to 35,000 fans seeing the games.

A football series with Tech would be great news for ULM football. They have struggled to gain relevance since moving up to Division I-A/FBS in 1994. A home-and-home series against Louisiana Tech would give UL-Monroe an opportunity to be mentioned in the same breath as Tech, to draw a decent home crowd, and to upset Tech for the first time since Ronald Reagan was President.

But what about Louisiana Tech? To steal an overused phrase from WWE, would playing ULM in football be “best for business” for Louisiana Tech?

http://latechreport.com/2016/01/04/w...ouisiana-tech/

Until we sell out The Joe once, and begin consistently attracting 25,000 to 28,000 fans to home games, it doesn't make very good business sense to turn away a team that historically has brought people into Joe Aillet Stadium. We may not like it or understand the reasons, but folks show up in Ruston when these two teams play football. That can't be argued.

[T1]

Until we sell out The Joe once, and begin consistently attracting 25,000 to 28,000 fans to home games, it doesn't make very good business sense to turn away a team that historically has brought people into Joe Aillet Stadium. We may not like it or understand the reasons, but folks shows up in Ruston when these two teams play football. That can't be argued.

and they don't really care much when playing conference games like FIU, MT, North Texas, Rice, etc... Passion brings out the fans. But it works both ways, the ULM fan is lost without Tech on the schedule. It's THE game for them historically. If they go 1-11, but that win was over Tech it was a successful season.

[inudesu]

Until we sell out The Joe once, and begin consistently attracting 25,000 to 28,000 fans to home games, it doesn't make very good business sense to turn away a team that historically has brought people into Joe Aillet Stadium. We may not like it or understand the reasons, but folks show up in Ruston when these two teams play football. That can't be argued.

I agree that you can't just wave away 4 or 5 or 6 thousand extra people. That's a big deal for us.

But again, it's not done in a vacuum. We're not talking about "great crowd against ULM" vs. nothing. It's great crowd against ULM vs. pretty good crowd against ULL. Or great crowd against ULM vs. pretty sorry crowd for UMASS or UNLV. Or (in the extreme 967 plan) great crowd against ULM vs. two crowds of whatever size against FCS (sometimes pretty good, like Southern, sometimes not so much).

And, for example, if we had a 1-and-1 with an SMU or Houston or Tulane or Memphis or USA or ULL or TXST and we were recruiting kids from those areas and the series helped us get them, then the long term pay-off may (or may not) be worth the loss in revenue from those 2 or 3 or 4 thousand tickets sold. And if we happened to catch a ranked MAC or MWC team, then the downstream effects of beating a top 25 team might make up for it, too. Of course, none of that is guaranteed. Just like we couldn't guarantee it wouldn't rain during the Ruston game of a ULM home and home.

[Houston Techsan]

Just like we couldn't guarantee it wouldn't rain during the Ruston game of a ULM home and home.

And therein lies the rub. Our own fans don't show in droves if it rains. How many ULM fans do you think would be there? There is no positive in playing them period.

[Champ967]

There is no positive in playing them period.

A win is a positive.

Or did you mean say "In my estimation, the negatives outweigh the positives" ??

[techman05]

This right here is why I'm generally sympathetic to a series with nlulm.

On its own, it sucks for all the reasons spelled out on 05's blog. But as compared to a home-and-home with ULL, I'm for it. And compared to an FCS and a guarantee game, I'm still for it.

Let's say, for example, we were going to play Nicholls in Ruston in year 1, and at Auburn in year 2. I would go to the game in Ruston, and take little pleasure in watching Tech stomp the Colonels. The following year, I would take even less pleasure in watching our Dawgs gets their butts kicked on national TV.

Now let's say we replace those 2 games with a nlulm home & home -- I attend both games and relish every delicious minute of beating the snot out of the injunhocks.

I hear what everyone is saying about recruiting and schedule strength and propping up northeast. I get that. Really.

But as a fan I want to see Tech 1. win games; 2. against teams I dislike; 3. in venues I can easily drive to. A series with Monroe satisfies each of those.

It does not satisfy the need to fill an $800,000 hole in our budget though. That is why avoiding Auburn, OU, or KState can't work.

[Champ967]

It does not satisfy the need to fill an $800,000 hole in our budget though. That is why avoiding Auburn, OU, or KState can't work.

That's not my concern. I'm a fan. Not an accountant.

It is incumbent on our leaders to consider the annual budget and the bottom line. But, as a fan, I have the luxury to not give a rip about such things.

[techman05]

That's not my concern. I'm a fan. Not an accountant.

It is incumbent on our leaders to consider the annual budget and the bottom line. But, as a fan, I have the luxury to not give a rip about such things.

I agree, as a fan, and would love for every game we play to be within a distance I have time and money to travel to.

[inudesu]

And therein lies the rub. Our own fans don't show in droves if it rains. How many ULM fans do you think would be there? There is no positive in playing them period.

A win is a positive.

Or did you mean say "In my estimation, the negatives outweigh the positives" ??

Yeah. And while it probably wouldn't be some awesome record-breaking crowd, ULM in the rain will bring more people than UMASS in the rain.

And that's a positive.

I'm just trying to say that a lot of these factors are fairly fuzzy, even leaving aside personal biases. The additional money from playing ULM would be better than playing, say, UNLV if we were recruiting some stud Vegas QB and didn't get him anyway. But if playing there helps net him, and he turns into a superstar, you'd happily give up that few extra thousand dollars. But you just don't know. You don't know if you'll actually get that much more money, you don't know if you'll get a particular recruit (or if playing a game nearby would even factor in his decision, or backfire if you play poorly or something). For almost any given reason one way or the other, there are going to be a lot of factors out of our control. That's why I think it's silly to set a hard line either way. No, we absolutely shouldn't break our necks to make sure a ULM series happens no matter what (and certainly shouldn't consider a permanent or even a very long series). But we shouldn't rule it out completely as an option either.

[Built4Speed]

Yep, it's officially the off season now.

I'll play along though: If ULM is Bernie, I don't want to be Andrew McCarthy or Jonathan Silverman propping his dead ass up. Let them fester in their own suck. Speaking strictly as a fan, I don't really care either way. If Louisiana Tech is playing a football game, I'm either there or watching on TV, regardless of opponent. Back in Reality Land, though, there is no benefit to Tech in playing the juco.

[Champ967]

, there is no benefit to Tech in playing the juco.

An easy win is a benefit.

Or did you mean to say "In my estimation, the liabilities outweigh the benefits" ??

[inudesu]

There is no positive in playing them period.

there is no benefit to Tech in playing the juco.

A win is a positive.

Or did you mean say "In my estimation, the negatives outweigh the positives" ??

Yeah. And while it probably wouldn't be some awesome record-breaking crowd, ULM in the rain will bring more people than UMASS in the rain.

And that's a positive.

In my opinion, and clearly I'm the minority on this opinion judging by the rare glance I give the Pawlitics board, ignoring substantive arguments by dismissing them outright is less effective than addressing them.

I absolutely think it's reasonable to make the case that the negatives to playing NLU outweigh the positives (although I still say it ought to be considered on a case-by-case manner I can even see why some would say the negatives always outweigh the positives). As I've said, very little of this is quantifiable. We can disagree.

It costs credibility (I think) to stick with superlatives though. Wins are positives/benefits. Bigger crowds are positives/benefits. "Away" games with tons of Tech fans there are positives/benefits. Extending a win streak is a positive/benefit. Admitting that doesn't mean we have to play them.

[inudesu]

An easy win is a benefit.

Or did you mean to say "In my estimation, the liabilities outweigh the benefits" ??

You beat me to it.