Apathy

[RougeDawg]

Apathy for Tech football has never been this bad. Why is it so bad and what would you do to fix it?

Schedule/Tailgating:

The home schedule is terrible and is destroying tailgating. We have exactly ZERO good home games this year.

Grambling (2:30 p.m. bonus) - Boring FCS team. I would literally be more interested in playing Ruston High. If that isn't enough, a 2:30 kickoff ensures crappy tailgating and peak temperatures for the crowd. One of two non-conference home games that we could use to bring in an interesting opponent and we go with Grambling?! That is just lazy.

FIU - Don't care. Nobody cares.

UMass - See above. The other non-conference game that is squandered.

USM (2:30 p.m. bonus) - Finally a good home game opponent...with a frigin 2:30 kickoff! Best tailgating opportunity with Fall weather and we cut it short. It is like we are trying to kill off the remaining fan base.

North Texas (3:00 p.m. bonus) - Meh. Another early kickoff.

UTSA (2:30 p.m. bonus) - Meh. Another early kickoff.

That is just a horrible schedule. Sunbelt is looking better and better.

Coaching:

I like Skip, but it is time for a change. The consistent boring is really consistently boring. Crowton had a really fun offense, Bicknell was so bad it was at least somewhat entertaining, Dooley was spicy, and Dykes had another fun offense with the last memorable wins/losses we have had. Manny Diaz is the only thing that REALLY peaked my interest these last few years. Skip's teams are safe, run up the middle on first, decent winning season, low-tier bowls that nobody cares about. I miss epically failing to make the Orange Bowl.

[Cal&Ken]

It is sad. I went to a Baylor game last night. The game was rather boring, but they constantly have stuff going on for the fans. Some of our TECH games are so quiet you can hear crickets. As much as I love TECH, it is difficult to get excited about the games. I struggled with whether or not to buy my season tickets we have had for 15 years this year. We did buy them, but don’t really care if I use them or not.

Skip seems like a great guy, but knowing we will not even try to compete against good teams makes it hard to care anymore.

[The Historian]

Sunbelt is looking better and better.

Keep in mind the Sun Belt has worse problems than CUSA. And some of CUSA's issues can be fixed. The agreement with the NFL Network that pays little money and moved some Saturday night kickoffs to 2:30 was a mistake, to say the least.

[CajunDave1]

Keep in mind the Sun Belt has worse problems than CUSA. And some of CUSA's issues can be fixed. The agreement with the NFL Network that pays little money and moved some Saturday night kickoffs to 2:30 was a mistake, to say the least.

I'd be interested in knowing what problems are worse for the Sun Belt?

[dawg80]

I'd be interested in knowing what problems are worse for the Sun Belt?

Well if you don't know, how are we to? You're asking yourself if you'd be interested in knowing. Dunno…

(hint: that should be a statement)

[CajunDave1]

Well if you don't know, how are we to? You're asking yourself if you'd be interested in knowing. Dunno…

(hint: that should be a statement)

Apparently “The Historian” knows something no one else knows, based on his post.

[The Historian]

I'd be interested in knowing what problems are worse for the Sun Belt?

We could start with the TV contracts. CUSA actually has some cash value to its deals. And CUSA could get a financial deal similar to its old deal with Fox if it were willing to do one thing - play some Tuesday/Wednesday games. The Belt's deal with ESPN forces you to play midweek games but pays you nothing for it. That deal gives you enough to upgrade equipment to ESPN standards, and that's about it. And look at what that's done to scheduling. Exactly how many Saturday home games do the Cajuns have this year between mid September and early November?

We could get into branding, but that's been hashed out a million times. Dave, just ask yourself, if the Cajuns were invited to CUSA tomorrow - no strings attached - would your president turn it down? Of course not. And not a single school in the Belt would turn it down either.

[CajunDave1]

We could start with the TV contracts. CUSA actually has some cash value to its deals. And CUSA could get a financial deal similar to its old deal with Fox if it were willing to do one thing - play some Tuesday/Wednesday games. The Belt's deal with ESPN forces you to play midweek games but pays you nothing for it. That deal gives you enough to upgrade equipment to ESPN standards, and that's about it. And look at what that's done to scheduling. Exactly how many Saturday home games do the Cajuns have this year between mid September and early November?

We could get into branding, but that's been hashed out a million times. Dave, just ask yourself, if the Cajuns were invited to CUSA tomorrow - no strings attached - would your president turn it down? Of course not. And not a single school in the Belt would turn it down either.

Based on the 247Sports article below, the TV deals of CUSA and the Sun Belt appear to be very similar:
PAYOUT
CUSA sources have been quoted as saying the distributions from CBSSN and Stadium do not include payments for production which will be handled by those networks, however CUSA schools will still need to produce the 60 games apparently headed to CUSA-TV. Sun Belt's payment includes revenue to offset ESPN+ production costs.
Verdict: The Sun Belt payment is rumored to be in the range of $475,000 to $500,000 per year and production standards to produce the 51 games will be at ESPN standards. CUSA's payment is rumored to be in the $400,000 to $500,000 range and will not include the cost of producing 60 games for CUSA TV with mixed production values. Financially looks like a wash.
Sun Belt and CUSA will have an identical number of national linear telecasts with Sun Belt having a higher percentage of games on national linear TV reaching more potential homes than the CUSA TV deal. CUSA's mid-tier mixed distribution will have greater reach than the Sun Belt's ESPN+ component. The remaining games will be streaming only with the Sun Belt on a cheaper platform using the same technology as MLB.tv while CUSA's will be more expensive and of variable quality.

Since you have apparently already checked our schedule, you know that we don't have any Saturday home games during the time period you have mentioned and we are playing a Wednesday home game and a Thursday road game. The benefit of the weekday games is that both games are at night and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 & ESPNU which are on cable or satellite TV, but not subscription based channels.

As far as for branding, I know you want to get into the Louisiana vs Louisiana-Lafayette debate, which I will not get into, as ESPN, CBS and most other national outlets have now recognized us "athletically" as Louisiana. Only folks in Louisiana are holding onto the past and don't want to admit that the name battle has been won everywhere but here.

As far as joining CUSA, I think at one time you would be correct saying that UL and most Sun Belt schools would have jumped at the chance to join CUSA (which some did). However, I don't believe that to be the case any longer. What more could be gained by moving to CUSA? The Sun belt has finished the season ranked higher that CUSA in 2 of the last 3 seasons if I'm not mistaken.

[The Historian]

Based on the 247Sports article below, the TV deals of CUSA and the Sun Belt appear to be very similar:

They're not similar. Forget about the "rumors" in the article. The Belt deal has much less cash than this but direct payments from ESPN for equipment and production costs. It's similar to the ESPN deal with the MAC. Very, very little cash. Mr. Peanut's parting gift.

But, as I previously posted, what you're not seeing is what CUSA turned down. The ability for much more cash in the deal if we would agree to Tuesday/Wednesday games. The Belt has play those games but gets nothing for it.

[The Historian]

As far as for branding, I know you want to get into the Louisiana vs Louisiana-Lafayette debate, which I will not get into...
As far as joining CUSA, I think at one time you would be correct saying that UL and most Sun Belt schools would have jumped at the chance to join CUSA (which some did).

Actually, I wasn't talking about the school's brand. I was talking about the Belt's brand.

And Dave I'll say it again. Take off your Vermillion and White glasses. If no strings were attached, your school would accept an invitation from CUSA as would every other school in the Belt. I said that CUSA has problems that were fixable. You're going to see the CFP payout methodology change in the next year or two, which was the fix to which I was referring.

[CajunDave1]

We could start with the TV contracts. CUSA actually has some cash value to its deals. And CUSA could get a financial deal similar to its old deal with Fox if it were willing to do one thing - play some Tuesday/Wednesday games. The Belt's deal with ESPN forces you to play midweek games but pays you nothing for it. That deal gives you enough to upgrade equipment to ESPN standards, and that's about it. And look at what that's done to scheduling. Exactly how many Saturday home games do the Cajuns have this year between mid September and early November?

Historian,
One other thing. The Cajuns TV schedule doesn't have us playing any 2:30 PM or early afternoon home games until possibly November. I find it hard to believe that having 4 of 6 home games starting at 2:30 or 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoons up in Ruston won't do much to help attendance and create additional excitement.

[sportdawg]

Historian,
One other thing. The Cajuns TV schedule doesn't have us playing any 2:30 PM or early afternoon home games until possibly November. I find it hard to believe that having 4 of 6 home games starting at 2:30 or 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoons up in Ruston won't do much to help attendance and create additional excitement.

Our 2:30 games before November are both on NFL Network. We have a Friday night game on CBS Sports Network. Our other home game before November is 6pm on ESPN3. Our November games are 3:00 & 2:30, which is acceptable to me.

[StrayDawg]

It is always fun when we have a coach who will give every team his best shot, and his players reflect that attitude (e.g. Peace, Crowton, Dykes). Opposing teams know that we are a threat to beat them, regardless of who they are, and fans flock to that.

But, when we have a coach who doesn't believe we should win those games and, just hopes nobody gets hurt (e.g. Bicknell, Holtz), we are not a threat to anybody and fans become apathetic.

[techman05]

Sadly, I do not think you can fix just football. Our entire athletic department save for soccer and softball have severely underachieved in the last decade or longer. Our game promotion, ticket promos, in game giveaways, sponsorships, tailgating, fundraising, and customer relations all could be done better by the local jr high 4-H club. We don’t have the right leadership to improve these things. If we want to be an academic only institution with minor sports and club sports, then our leadership is sufficient. If we want more, we must demand better personnel and better effort.

[THEarmada]

Agreed. Everything from our radio affiliates to our online merchandising is bad.