Times-Picayune article today

[Video Eagle]

I'm curious what La Tech fans think of this article in todays Times-Picayune.



Does this guy have some ax to grind against La Tech, or is it a fair article?

[rphdawg]

Ted Lewis
Making up is hard to do. Especially if it involves Louisiana Tech and the Sun Belt Conference, which had a less-than-amicable parting of the ways three years ago when the Bulldogs jumped to the WAC.

Now they suddenly find themselves in need of each other.

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The defection of SMU, Rice and Tulsa to Conference USA has left the Bulldogs on an island as the only WAC member in the central time zone, and a travel burden to the other WAC schools.

And the New Orleans-based Sun Belt needs eight full members to continue to be recognized as a Division I-A football conference in 2005. Louisiana Tech would become the most prominent school in a league much in need of a boost in respectability.

So what's the holdup? Certainly, the two Louisiana schools in the Sun Belt would welcome the return of the Bulldogs.

"I feel very strongly about it, and I am going to continue to talk to them about coming back," said Louisiana-Lafayette president Ray Authement

Adds UNO athletic director Jim Miller, "Tech and UNO have been great rivals in the past, and the rivalry should be renewed. Having them back in the Sun Belt would be good for everybody."

But so far, Tech isn't showing any signs of wanting a reconciliation. "We are committed to remaining in the WAC," athletic director Jim Oakes said. "We want to work now to do the things we need to help the league, and we feel that the WAC presents the best opportunities for our athletic program. We have made an investment in the WAC, and without casting aspersions on any other league, we are doing what we feel is best for our program and what out alumni and supporters want as well."

Funny. Until a week ago, Tech was very publicly trying to join Conference USA. C-USA instead picked Texas-El Paso, going for market size and support level over Tech's geographic advantages.

Water under the bridge, said WAC commissioner Karl Benson. "Tech was doing what it felt was in the best interests of the school, and we accept that," he said. "They were a better geographic fit in Conference USA."

To make Tech a better geographic fit in the WAC, Benson has been seeking other Sun Belt schools that might be interested in coming over to his conference. So far, though, he's not getting very far.

"We have no interest in the WAC," Authement said. "We went down that road before with the Big West and aren't going to do it again."

North Texas and Middle Tennessee had a similar response.

Oakes has gone so far as to suggest Louisiana-Monroe as an alternative. Anyone knowing the athletic history between those two neighboring schools is now rolling his eyes in disbelief.

And the whole idea appears to be regarded coolly by some in the western reaches of the WAC.

"You know how much it costs us to fly to Louisiana?" one unnamed WAC athletic director told The Fresno Bee. "I'm not sure adding another team out there makes economic sense."

Neither does it make economic sense for Tech to be traveling at Hawaii for volleyball, but Oakes vows to tough it out.

Why? Status. The WAC has a long history. The Sun Belt does not.

That's why Tech's going to the WAC looked like the right move in 2001. Sun Belt football was just starting, and Tech officials could not have foreseen the Bulldogs' closest league neighbors switching to C-USA three years later. But things have changed.

The Sun Belt is much stronger now than then, and the WAC's status and even future have been come precarious. Four schools have left WAC in the past year. And, even while pledging solidarity to the WAC, Nevada, Fresno State, Hawaii and Boise State have all been lobbying to join the Mountain West, which has put its expansion plans on hold for a year after nabbing Texas Christian from C-USA this year.

At the same time, the Sun Belt announced last week that in the last three years its members have spent more than $340 million constructing facilities, with another $190 more in future projects scheduled for the next decade.

When Tech left the Sun Belt, its athletic budget of $7.6 million would have ranked third in the league. Its current budget of $9.1 million would be sixth.

The Sun Belt's biggest deficiencies are a perceived decline in the quality of men's basketball (no at-large bids since 1994; no NCAA Tournament victories since 1995) and having only one guaranteed bowl berth. Tech's presence could help in both areas, especially football, where the Bulldogs' recent road victories against BCS foes (Oklahoma State in 2002 and Michigan State last year) are something no Sun Belt school has yet achieved.

So what's keeping these crazy kids, who are obviously meant for each, other apart? Pride probably.

We're in a feeding frenzy era of conference realignment. By 2005, at least 24 schools will have changed leagues in a dizzying one-year period. There seems to be an obsession among the non-BCS schools to scramble for position in an unofficial pecking order that ultimately destroys historical and logical conference ties.

How else to explain UTEP's willingness to pay $2 million to join C-USA? Tech would have done the same.

Tech's pride may ultimately be costly, though. Repeated statements of disinterest in rejoining the Sun Belt are becoming irritating, even to those who want to take the Bulldogs back.

The league meetings are two weeks away. If Tech's stance doesn't change by then, ULM, currently a football-only member, could be offered full membership, and the Indians would certainly accept.

That would leave Tech with no alternative but to stay put.

Good sense may prevail before then. But don't count on it.

[TXDAWG81]

Ted's an idiot. He doesn't have a clue about Tech.

[champion110]

I second that Ted is an idiot. He does answer his own question, though - perception!

[EJ]

When Tech left the Sun Belt, its athletic budget of $7.6 million would have ranked third in the league. Its current budget of $9.1 million would be sixth.

I found this to be the most interesting statement in the column...

[CARTEK]

I found this to be the most interesting statement in the column...

Ah, but is it fact or fiction?

[Dawgpix]

Ted's a former sports editor of The Monroe Morning World and News-Star (1970s & 1980s).
Following is the headline over his most famous column appeared after NLULM won a couple of football games over Tech:
"Two programs going in opposite directions"
tm

[oledawg66]

Video Eagle - Just about everything in that article has been discussed on this board. I think that you will find that about half of us think that the author should be hung for high treason and half of us think that it's a fair assessment of the situation.

[altadawg]

The write-up is right on the money, not a doubt in my mind.

[sportkid]

You're right alta. Can't wait to get back to those Southland days. What were we thinking? Obviously we were meant to be together with ULM, ULL, UNO, NSU, SLU, McNeese, Nicholls, Delgado Community College, Diesel Driving Academy. All these schools were meant to be together. I especially like Ted's line, "So what's keeping these crazy kids, who are obviously meant for each, other apart?" We are obviously meant for each other. I get it now and I appreciate Ted and you pointing that out to me.Why would I hope for anything more out of life?