The bright side

[george]

This is correct.

The only way that Tech would have gotten into a bowl was for them to get one of the guaranteed WAC slots.

Once you start depending on bowls that didn't get their conference tie-in team, then it all boils down to "how many tickets will you sell."

I'm sure that Commissioner Benson, like Commissioner Waters, tried to convince the Motor City Bowl (which, as it turns out, is the bowl we're talking about here) that Tech or UL was deserving.

But Memphis has people who will travel to Detroit. Tech and UL didn't have enough.

I feel for you guys. I think you proved Friday night that you deserved to be in a bowl game.

But butts in the seats, not your coach, not your commissioner, is the reason you didn't get in.

i'm not even going to dignify the ull angle of this with a response...but if it is tech vs. memphis for "butts in the seats" and tv revenue... does anybody think the city of detroit is pining to see memphis or deangelo williams? does anybody really believe that memphis would be that more of an attractive draw than louisiana tech? i understand bowls or about revenue and they will always take the attractive, appealing team (the secret to notre dame's success). but in this case, why not take the most deserving? the idea that memphis is some type of great draw in detroit is laughable.

[CajunBird]

I think you missed my point, George.

It wasn't about who in Detroit was going to see the game. It was who's fan base would support the bowl the best.

That's where Tech lost out to Memphis. Their home attendance was better than Tech's or UL's.

And, in the end, it boiled down to those three schools.

Was Tech the most deserving? I certainly think so.

But, as I said, when you get away from the Conference automatic tie-ins, it's about butts in the seats. And Memphis will bring more people from Memphis to Detroit than Tech would have from Ruston.

Get as mad as you want. That's the way it is.

[TECH88]

it is marketing... you cannot find any Tech gear in El Dorado which is approximately 50 miles away. (and dont come back with that Team shop and bookstore crap ... if you cannot get people to the games, you cannot sell them that stuff) I say market out product which is BIG TIME FOOTBALL and you will get butts in the seats.

I came across the same problem the day after we won the Fresno game. Excited about the win, I logged on to the bookstore's site as well as Latechsports.com in search of a replica Tech football jersey for Xmas, and no, not one of those cheap-looking Ryan Moats jerseys. I wanted something that resembles a real jersey, not a flag football jersey. Anyway, when I didn't find what I wanted on our sites I started looking at other sites claiming to have all D-1A replica jerseys-on at least 4 different sites none of them carried La Tech jerseys, they carried everybody but us. Hell, some sites even had D-1AA jerseys, BUT NOOOO, NOT GOOD OL' TECH! We like to keep our merchandise at only selected places, it's like you have to be privileged to know how and where to find our stuff. I finally said, piss on it. I'm through trying.

[TECH88]

it is marketing... you cannot find any Tech gear in El Dorado which is approximately 50 miles away. (and dont come back with that Team shop and bookstore crap ... if you cannot get people to the games, you cannot sell them that stuff) I say market out product which is BIG TIME FOOTBALL and you will get butts in the seats.

Hell,Like another poster said- we are small time.

[macp38]

Nothing in Shreveport either and it is the largest major city close to Tech with the largest base of alumni. I hear ya. When I ask stores to carry it they say they can't get it?????

[JAB]

I have spoken to a couple of Shreveport retailers in the past and they all say the same thing. "I buy everything I can get my hands on. And it sales out pretty fast. But when I try to get different items I am told that Louisiana Tech will not allow anybody else to sale those items." And I noticed that the things they can get are out of date (previous years). I guess this is just another way the admin. shortsightedness prohibits TECH growth. They would rather not have their name out in the market than to lose a few dollars on merchandise sales (let's not forget that TECH still makes money when someone else sales their products).

[JDubyadawg]

Welcome one and welcome all to the narrowminded -paranoid- cheapass - "not in my clique" - good ole boy - attitude of north LA when it comes to marketing, risk taking and promoting the hell out of anything.

Signed

A life long resident of my beautiful state and independent sales and marketing guy

[dhussdawg]

Nothing in Shreveport either and it is the largest major city close to Tech with the largest base of alumni. I hear ya. When I ask stores to carry it they say they can't get it?????

Yeh, there is one store in the St Vincent Mall that carries minimal Tech gear. They have since had an upgrade but it was just to fill the store with more LSU crap and less Tech stuff. They have Tech golf balls and accessories, but they have no shirts or anything like that. I dont understand why you can only buy LT stuff in Ruston. It is pathetic. As for bowls, I am still not understand how CUSA has 6 tie ins, wow they are worse than the WAC. How can a conference that is on par with another have half of the bowls? That is crappy commish work. JBIII didnt do a great job either. I am ecstatic about the Fresno game, but all it shows me is the inconsistency of his teams. We had six wins agains tthe bottom of the barrel of DI football, whippie shit. We had one quality win against a team that is more talented than three of the losses we had( Nev, BSU, and Kansas) If we can suck it up and win one of those games, we would have had to go bowling at 8-3 and two quality wins, IMO. Please dont tell me 7-4 against the schedule we played impressed some of you. If it did, you dont know much about football. Kansas was terrible, yet JBIII referred to them as a have and us a have not, what an attitude to bring into a game. We had a chance to beat Nevada and Boise, but yet the halftime adjustments by the other team whipped us. Wow, the list goes on and on of what ifs and what we should have done.

[hookdown]

i truly understand that jbIII is a flawed coach in a lot of areas. that is not my point. the point i am making is that other coaches achieved less on the field this year (non BCS schools with 6-5 records and no wins over a team nearly as good as fresno state) and they are still going bowling. they're coaches "did enough" to get there teams into bowls only because their conference took better care of them then our conference did - not because of something that happened on the field...

Those coaches know that they have 5-6 bowl berths to work with. We all know that the WAC only two, so if you want to go bowling in the WAC, you had better finish in the top two. We did not do that. Did we get shafted by the bowls, certainly. But we did not take care of business when we had the chance (KU, UNR, BSU).

But DH hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that EVERYONE shares some responsibilty in this.

[inudesu]

i understand bowls or about revenue and they will always take the attractive, appealing team (the secret to notre dame's success).

It is the key to their sucess in getting into bowls (and therefore continuing to get even more hype) but it is also probably the secret to their lack of sucess in those bowls. They always get picked over their heads because they are a big draw. Not that it bothers me when they lose. . .

[LaTechAlum]

...Suddenly everybody on this board seems happy settling for medicority in football just because we beat Fresno Friday night. One frickin football game...

HD

I am with you. Its about the season.....gotta win games (not a game). It seems like this "no bowl" & "bicknell gotta go" conversation is a repeat every year. Its time for the latter to take its course.

[rbhtech]

Fire Conroy hines first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jimwwms]

Fire Conroy hines first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM WITH YOU!!! Conroy's game plan lost the BSU game, his failure to decide on a starting QB lost the KU game.

PERSONALLY THINK JBIII IS A KEEPER.... but just my opinion.
(1) Good big game coach.
(2) Excellent recruiter.
(3) Excellent image.
(4) Good disciplinarian.
(5) Willing to stay to build the program.

["T"]

I AM WITH YOU!!! Conroy's game plan lost the BSU game, his failure to decide on a starting QB lost the KU game.

PERSONALLY THINK JBIII IS A KEEPER.... but just my opinion.
(1) Good big game coach.
(2) Excellent recruiter.
(3) Excellent image.
(4) Good disciplinarian.
(5) Willing to stay to build the program.

Ok so we all see why ole boy from El Dorado is seeing red. Jack is the problem. Bottom line. Conroy was the one who took the Fresno game over and called agressive plays in spite of JBIII discouraging that type of game plan. He "wanted to get conservative," (Quote from his post game interview) "Conroy wouldn't do it, I had to walk away a few times." Sounds like Conroy was saying your leaving and I want your job!! I'm not totally sold on Conroy, don't think I'm pushing for him to be our next head coach, point is: I'm sold on anything BUT Jack Bicknell controling the future of Tech football. Let's not forget that this is his first winning season in years! I credit that to the heart of the seniors. Men who cried on the field when they lost to Boise at the last home game that they would ever play in The Jo! That's the only reason we had a winning season! Jack is a great man with loads of integrity, he's just not the right fit for Tech. I think he's proven that. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who actually enjoys winning and not looking forward to next year... I get to do that enough already. The Saints, Hornets, Cleveland Indians...:bigcry: I'll stop before I make you sick, but you get the point. In the words of the movie Hook: Run Home Jack! (JBII's from New England) He isn't good for our program and he needs to leave. If your ok with being just below average, the hey, let's keep him arround for a few more years!!

T

[Cool Hand Clyde]

(5) Willing to stay to build the program.

Explain this statement. Here's my take:

No TV show, forced to do a radio show, no interest in fund raising, became a CHAMPS member only this year, can't pull off back-to-back wins that excite the fans, doesn't interact with fans unless forced to, disappears in the off-season when he should be interested in pumping up the fan base, scaled back summer camps, complains to the media too much, etc, etc