OK, "IF" LTU Ever Stumbled into the SBC, Which 2 SBC Teams Would U Like To Kick-Butt?

[dawg80]

And we have Custer as our leader.

Well, at least Custer was agressive. He lost because he was over-confident and willing to take risks, HUGE risks!

DR and JO are just the opposite. If they are military leaders then they are hunkered down in a bunker ignoring intelligence that we are being out-flanked. They are best likened to the Aulic Council. Took them weeks to make decisions, and then, it was the wrong decision because the situation on the battlefield had changed.

Tech athletics is like a piece of driftwood being swept along in a raging flood. Oh, we will end up on shore somewhere, but it won't be where we decide.

That is why, as a sports' fan, I have adopted other sports. My two favorites are cycling, because of Lance, and women's beach volleyball, because of the "uniforms." Say no more. :icon_wink

[champion110]

I am NO fan of D.R. and J.O. over the last year, believe me... However, I think sometimes fans don't know the whole story. There may be more brewing than you think. It would be nice if we did know more, but we have to hope that they are more knowledgeable than we think.

We have a plan (albeit one with some critisizm from the board) now and that is, at least, a step in the right direction.

I don't think we are any where near the point of having to give up.

Here are the bad things that have happened (to put it in perspective):
1. We didn't get in CUSA in the round that we thought we would.
2. We didn't fire our football or bball coach when we should have.
3. We don't seem to be aggressive with marketing and sponsorships.
4. Funding is low.

Those are the most horrible things that I can think of for the past few years. All of these can be addressed. We have a plan to increase the funding (not enough, but it is a plan). We still have a chance at CUSA in the next round (no matter what some of you think).

Now they need to get to work on marketing and getting some sponsors.

Hopefully, our football team can do some winning this year to get everyone back in the right frame of mind.

We have had some big setbacks, but not life threatening ones.

I don't want to argue with all of the doomsday crowd on here. It does no good. You will see the negative and I will try to see the positive. Only time will tell what will happen next.

[#1techfan]

I am NO fan of D.R. and J.O. over the last year, believe me... However, I think sometimes fans don't know the whole story. There may be more brewing than you think. It would be nice if we did know more, but we have to hope that they are more knowledgeable than we think.

We have a plan (albeit one with some critisizm from the board) now and that is, at least, a step in the right direction.

I don't think we are any where near the point of having to give up.

Here are the bad things that have happened (to put it in perspective):
1. We didn't get in CUSA in the round that we thought we would.
2. We didn't fire our football or bball coach when we should have.
3. We don't seem to be aggressive with marketing and sponsorships.
4. Funding is low.

Those are the most horrible things that I can think of for the past few years. All of these can be addressed. We have a plan to increase the funding (not enough, but it is a plan). We still have a chance at CUSA in the next round (no matter what some of you think).

Now they need to get to work on marketing and getting some sponsors.

Hopefully, our football team can do some winning this year to get everyone back in the right frame of mind.

We have had some big setbacks, but not life threatening ones.

I don't want to argue with all of the doomsday crowd on here. It does no good. You will see the negative and I will try to see the positive. Only time will tell what will happen next.

I agree there are some good things that are planned to improve our chances of a CUSA bid. Hopefully those plans will develop quickly and we make the right steps to improve our facilities and ticket sells and things like that. There is one main problem with our athletics and that is Jim Oakes. Dr. Dan told JO that whatever money he saved at the end of the year from athletics that he would recieve 10% of that money at the end of the year. You can't run a successful athletic program when all you try to do is save money.

Like I have said there are some good things planned for the future and hopefully they will take shape very quickly. Lets just help out wherever we can and lets make the Sun Belt talk a thing of the past that we won't have to worry about anytime soon.

[Dwayne From Minden]

Since some of ya'll insist that there are changes on the horizon (mainly the so called plan) that is going to make our position much more BEARABLE -

I have a question for ya'll...

Since we are over ONE FULL YEAR removed from being REJECTED by CUSA and have yet to see a major project undertaken on the athletic side of the ledger at TECH -

What time-line do we put on these "supposed" changes to have "hope" -

I want a month and year for say instillation of the "grass" -

I want a date for the installtion of video boards and new scoreboards -

I want a date for refurbishing the floor in the TAC -

Is it December 31 of 2005 - Is it June 30th of 2006?

Personally I don't see anything happening before July 1st 2006 maybe as late as July 1st 2007 -

Which just puts us two more years behind the curve -

[PlummMeanGreen]

This is a stupid thread. PMG has presented a scenario that has us either dropping to the depths of 1a or dropping classification. The choices are similar and both negative. I don't think this will be our choice. We may have hit a road block, but don't buy into the SBC teams dreams of us dropping down. We are above that.

Louisiana Tech will be fine. We lost a battle. The war is still in full swing.

THIS POST NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART: (but not really)

I know the subject of the Sun Belt creates much emotion on this board--one way or another.

One of your posters even suggested that some of you would even prefer 1-AA to joining the SBC. Personally, to me that is insane and something I say is tantamount to "burning the barn down to kill the mouse" kind of thinking, almost self destructive. Honestly, though, few outside Ruston care what yall do as we know few outside Denton give a rat's arse what we do. I think a few of you even like the attention from Sun Belters on this subject, but our conference will survive with or without you because its doing that now and is showing promise for growth, a 2'nd bowl game inside our league's footprint on the horizon (probably located in the Sunshine State) and all this going on in only its upcoming 5'th year of football existence.

Dwayne From Minden, this thread was not begun to incite a mild riot as I think some of your posters may think, but was merely a "what if" scenario. To be honest, though, La Tech fans and alums will probably have to accept whatever your administration tells you what is best for the overall good of your entire school just like we have to accept what ours tells us; that is, what we are going to do to fit within the realms of our potential with realistic and reachable goals. And they will do that with the NT constituency whether we approve or not. They are the ones who have the bottom line concerns and that is to keep a school from going too far in the red or just bottoming out into some collegiate form of bankruptcy. We once had an NT president who had the gonads to basically tell us: "Its either 1-AA or drop football." We had no choice and the next 13 years in 1-AA were (in many ways) our own darkest years. I wholeheartedly admire La Tech for avoiding NCAA D1-AA as I know others of our alums did as well. IMO, NT may have lost a generation of fans at that level. We are located in a major league sports market and D-1AA had the perception of minor league.

On the subject of CUSA: I see that as a closed membership for a long time just as the old Southwest Conference became after they added Univ. of Houston. Now I may be wrong about that, but I don't think I will be. I grew up watching most of the CUSA west schools who came from the SWC. Those schools never drew flies against each other when they played each other as SWC rivals and being in CUSA for sure won't change that.

Of course, all those ex SWC/now CUSA schools all were Big Time when the played UT, TAMU and Arkansas, but those were about the only times they drew good crowds; so in other words, just like TCU, I don't fret whether NT is associated with those schools one way or the other. TCU sees no advantage to it whatsoever, in fact, they didn't even see a need to continue a league association with fellow Metroplex school SMU. I work in Fort Worth and know TCU people, and they feel not being in the CUSA west coaltion is to their advantage.

If NT were to ever officially put out feelers for a any conference, I would prefer the MWC as TCU's travel partner, but I am realistic enough to know that is not likely to happen so what the heck do any of us do? In our case for now, we help grow a 5 year old league that some of you on this board suggests should be running all pistons go like a 50 year old league would be.

[champion110]

PMG,
Most of us don't reside in Ruston. Tech has a great reputation in most of the country. Some of the locals don't see it, but it is there.

As for the Sun Belt, I don't have a problem where NT plays. I don't think it is for us. Been there done that.... We won't drop to 1aa and we won't go Belt. Other options are out there and the WAC will do just fine in the meantime.

You presented 2 bad choices and then got all the doomsday posters going. Tech will be fine. You may see us as "over confident", but true Tech fans have a LOT of pride. Some may choose to post about all the negative things that have ever happened to our great school on here, but don't EVER think that means that we are weakening. We will be strong again soon.

NT is a good school. I don't have anything against you guys. I think you are working hard and trying to advance. That is a good thing. You will have to move up in conferences before we are ever true rivals, though, because we are not going to move down.

[Dawgpix]

The SBC . . is the name of some phone company?
tm

[PlummMeanGreen]

The SBC . . is the name of some phone company?
tm

Actually, those are also the initials for the largest Protestant denomination in the USA.

[Ktulu7]

I still say I'd MUCH rather see North Texas come to the WAC and play us, rather than wishing we'd drop down. I'm tired of the Belt talk. We're in the WAC to stay, and North Texas would benefit if they'd step up! It's gotta get old beating those lowsy teams every year and not really advancing in prestige or anything... It would create a great rivalry with us too!

[detltu]

I would want to beat everyone of course but I would want to beat the UL's every time. I expect the conference landscape to keep changing for a few more years. I expect the WAC to get enough teams for a championship or to lose Boise and Fresno to the mountain west and we would probably merge with the sun belt. I am still reeling from the descisions of the last conference shift. How could we pick three of the worst sunbelt teams and the C-USA pick three of the worst WAC teams? Oh well its obvious I am not making the descision.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I still say I'd MUCH rather see North Texas come to the WAC and play us, rather than wishing we'd drop down. I'm tired of the Belt talk. We're in the WAC to stay, and North Texas would benefit if they'd step up! It's gotta get old beating those lowsy teams every year and not really advancing in prestige or anything... It would create a great rivalry with us too!

The 3 schools leaving the SBC for the WAC who are in the WAC footprint (so to speak) have for most of the last few years been Bottom 10 or Bottom 20 schools ratings-wise. So all things considered, I don't know how that would (from top to bottom) help the WAC power-ratings (or whatever they call it now) as to make the WAC so head and shoulders above the Sun Belt. Some may still want to consider the 'Belts number of years playing football compared to the WAC? Seems so few over here do.

Our 5 year old football conference has never pretended to be the 2'nd coming of the Big 12, but the key words here are still, uh, "5 year old football conference."

Stay Cool--Hot Days Ahead.

[Badgerwolf]

Agree; I live in ABQ and NMSU belongs in the WAC as much as I would like to see them in the SBC they did the right thing by moving to a WESTERN conference. Certainly, Idaho and USU made the right move.

The fans here in the West do not relate to Southern schools as we all know from our Big West days. Heck, I pretty much follow Western schools these days after living out West most of my adult life.

UNT is doing great in the SBC and will move on to bigger things if they keep going in the direction they are headed; their facilities improvements are first class!

BTW, love the description by my name; you done good guys!


[/QUOTE=PlummMeanGreen]The 3 schools leaving the SBC for the WAC who are in the WAC footprint (so to speak) have for most of the last few years been Bottom 10 or Bottom 20 schools ratings-wise. So all things considered, I don't know how that would (from top to bottom) help the WAC power-ratings (or whatever they call it now) as to make the WAC so head and shoulders above the Sun Belt. Some may still want to consider the 'Belts number of years playing football compared to the WAC? Seems so few over here do.

Our 5 year old football conference has never pretended to be the 2'nd coming of the Big 12, but the key words here are still, uh, "5 year old football conference."

Stay Cool--Hot Days Ahead.[/QUOTE]

[scubbdog]

Firstly, I admire your candor and sincerity w/o deferring to the smack card.

Secondly (and Honest Injun') I don't think CUSA will be an option for either NT or LTU in the near or distant future, but I for one don't lose sleep on that because of the new make-up of CUSA. U of Memphis wants out as quickly as possible and I don't know the long range NCAA D1-A future of some private schools in CUSA. 2 of them have already had studies on dropping football.

And just where will Troy U go? They lost to 2 Sun Belt teams last Fall and gave us no challenge 2 years ago in Denton. I do admire them for improving their football facilities.

The thing that most in the non BCS (who seem to never be happy where they are now) need to understand is that there are few places left to move to; so some who have accepted their present situation are just merely trying to bloom where planted.

PMG, just out of curiosity of which two teams are you speaking?

[oledawg66]

Anytime you mention the SBC and the slightest possibility that Tech re-join it, you are going to get the gloom and doom guys (oh well, we might as well just drop all the way down to the Southland Conference) and the rah rah rhee guys (we will never ever ever go back to the Belch in fact things are looking real good for us to move up to cusa in the next conference shakeup) all fired up and the argument will commence. But in keeping with the intent of your thread - If we did wake up one morning in the SBC, I think our biggest natural rivalry would be ULM because of past history and location and the students, who create these rivalries anyway, would be much more involved. But the team I would most like to put it on would be UNT, because of their dominance of the conference.

[DocMarvin362]

...If we did wake up one morning in the SBC, I think our biggest natural rivalry would be ULM because of past history and location and the students, who create these rivalries anyway, would be much more involved...

Hell yea oledawg66... we had a BLAST in 98 - 99... we decided that we needed to get about 120 people in the Tech Band to have a Pep Rally in Funroe at 3 a.m. We got directions to the NLwho band directors house and gave him a nice little Tech pep rally at 3 AM!!!!!!!!!! LOL... it was the best thing that I remember from my days at Tech. We ended up leaving and feeling like crap... he and his wife had just had a baby not too long ago, and.... yea.... you can imagine.. he wasn't happy. So then we just went to the Asst Band Directors house and gave him a 4 AM pep Rally!!! LOL, it was GREAT!