Welcome Sunbelt. And I for one will not be investing any of my money outside of an occasional game ticket with the current administration.
Welcome Sunbelt. And I for one will not be investing any of my money outside of an occasional game ticket with the current administration.
Y'all want a cooler head? Well, here it is: Independant seems to be the best solution. Word out of C-USA seems to be that LA Tehc wil still be there for the taking the next time around. Lets go Independant, get our house in order, and keep our fingers crossed for next time. We are in limbo. We're better than the Belt, but not quite at C-USA standards. I like the Marshal plan... too often we get banged up by BCS schools and then limp through our conference schedule. Lets save $$$ by going Indi today and hope for a better tomorrow.
I think in the end finances will dictate what TECH will do and if this decision leads to even more fan apathy and combine that with a football season that is not very prosperous the writing on the wall should be fairly clear and should appear as early as this fall -
But we have to weigh in the hard headedness of the administration - the same administration who kept its head in the sand and for the prior two years leading up to last fall's movement continuously stated - THAT NO CONFERENCE SHUFFLES WERE IMMENIENT -
Some of ya'll may be willing to give several $1,000 annually just to stay in the WAC and continue the false pretense of "separation" but I will not - I will buy a new boat or rebuild my docks at the lake...
1st thing we need to do is scrap this 4 BCS non conference OOC schedule crap and schedule some ballgames we can win and make us "look" attractive - it worked for Marhsall and it got UNT a serios look at CUSA...
2nd make a phone call to Monroe and schedule them - all SPORTS - if we are so freaking broke - there is money on the table for the taking - TAKE IT...
3rd make a phone call to Grambling and sign them up for wbb, mbb & baseball - once again MORE money...
4th put the Techsters on the road and pick up some big game guarantees to offset some of the HUGE loses that program runs up...
5th rework the dunking Dogs schedule and somehow get them where they have 23 to 24 D1A wins - playing in the 7th rated conference that number of wins will get you in post play each and every year, and unlike in the women's game will put $$$$ in the coffers -
6th rework every single major coaches contract to include an attendance clause - don't say it can't be done, if they want to see the end of their current contract, they will agree to it or you get a new coach...
7th rework the AD's contract so that it also has w/l provisions and attendance provisions in all sports - pay on performance on the courts and fields, not whether there is not a deficit in the programs after transfers...
Folks - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to run a non-BCS athletic program - all it takes is common sense and fiscal responsibilty (selling your soul to the highest bidder is NOT fiscal responsibility - that's laziness and the easy way out)...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
for some reason readin all this stuff made me think think that we're about to hit rock bottom w/ attendance and due to our lack of appeal, ULM will start to rise.
It's always darkest before dawn, bulldawgs03. Keep your head up.
Thanks Dwayne,
Your analysis as always is very thorough and right on point.
Frankly, I don't think it made that much difference to the folks in Ruston whether we got in CUSA or not. There are still a lot of people that think we should still be competing with NSU and McNeese.
I predict that things will not change that much now in the way Tech athletics does business. As you so astutely stated, to get things moving takes work, innovation, incentive and a certain amount of daring. No one in a position of power at Tech has shown they have any inclination for any of that. As long as they get their paycheck and their bonus for breaking even they are happy.
Don't rule out WAC expansion that includes five central time zone teams being members of the WAC as an option until the WAC rules it out.
I won't rule it out, but IMHO it is suicide for the WAC, espcially if CUSA comes looking for a team again in the near future. If you think that Boise, Nevada, Hawaii and Fresno want out now, wait until that happens.
"7th rework the AD's contract so that it also has w/l provisions and attendance provisions in all sports - pay on performance on the courts and fields, not whether there is not a deficit in the programs after transfers..."
No need to re-work this contract. There is absolutly no reason to keep him at his current salary. We might as well get someone cheap who is just starting out. If we're Indy or Sunbelt all we need is some guy we can call AD. Sorry Oakes time to go.
I'll be the AD for 42,000 a year and if I can't get butts in the seats and wins in the W column within 3 years I will step down and beat myself at the baseball field with a lousiville.
Tech was posied with entry in the WAC to excel and we have failed plain and simple. We have to much to offer not to be moving forward. It can be done at Tech, we just have to find someone that wants to expend the energy to get it done.
if we can get asu, unt, and ull in the wac, our travel would be better than it is now.
football:
west: fresno, san jose, boise, nevada, hawaii, idaho(football only)
east: nmsu, utah st., tech, unt, asu, ull
other sports:
west: fresno, san jose, boise, nevada, hawaii, utah st.
east: nmsu, tech, unt, asu, ull, ualr(non football)
the question is, can we get the wac to add these teams?
idaho is the only school with a d-1A football team west of the mississippi (ulm doesnt count), but if we can get them in as football only and get ualr as the 12th team in other sports, we could save even more travel money.
There's another question for you to ask.Originally Posted by JAY
Could the WAC talk "these teams" into joining the second coming of the Big West?
If it's just those three teams, the answer is more than likely NO.
If I were y'all, I'd join the South Alaskan Hockey League and euthanize the entire athletic program before I entertained another damned word from Conference USA.Originally Posted by SummaCumDoggie
If this story is true, CUSA picked a school that wouldn't know winning if it jumped up and bit it on the butt and EVERYBODY is going to have to fly to instead of Louisiana Tech.
I know most of you cringe at the idea of joining the Sun Belt, but I honestly think there's more pride to be salvaged there than sitting around waiting for CUSA to come back around at this point.
Join the Belt. Dominate the Belt. Shove this up somebody's ass in New Orleans.
HP,
You are a very nice guy and a great representative of your fine school... It is a pleasure to read your thoughts on this board...
Your AD can go F__K himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for your support through all this, when it ain't easy to support this joint!!!
Fact is, Gianini owes his position at USM to Jim Oakes and Louisiana Tech. If JO hadn't agreed to resume the TECH-NLU series, the books at NLU wouldn't have been as easily cooked as they were.
Gianini would not have gotten his promotion and he would still be in Funroe when the million dollar "deficit loan" was brought out to the public.
Swearingen would have had his scapegoat. Instead, he had to take the fall.