Interesting CUSA article

[dawg419]

Actually I meant both - so few home games generally (although getting better) and then no real regional road games. Thanks for the correction.l

[hookdown]

this is based on past home games with smu and rice? i think not. but you may yet be right because smu will draw more if they make waves with june jones, houston has seemed to be improving, and usm and memphis should be a better draw than smu and rice were in the past.

No...based on a number of factors, including how much we seem to dislike USM, Tulane, and Memphis. Also, the games are fairly easy travel for Ruston (including north LA) folks and students. Past games with Houston were pretty one-sided for UH and it is time for some serious payback on our part. I think we match up pretty evenly (or very soon will) with them. SMU again, because of all the alumni living in the DFW area and having June as coach will make things interesting. Tulane is, well, Tulane. Nuff said. If we are competing with these teams for conference championships, it raises the interest level and the stakes even more.

[DogsWin]

Past games with Houston were pretty one-sided for UH and it is time for some serious payback on our part. I think we match up pretty evenly (or very soon will) with them. SMU again, because of all the alumni living in the DFW area and having June as coach will make things interesting. Tulane is, well, Tulane.

Houston does not want any part of Louisiana Tech. Tech won the last two meetings by a total of 51-14. 1995 in Houston's Robertson Stadium, Tech 19 - Houston 7 (and it wasn't that close) and 1994 in Ruston, Tech 32 - Houston 7. Then Houston coach Kim Helton said the Cougars would never play in Ruston again because we ran the score up.

SMU is 1-3 vs Tech, Tulsa is 2-7 vs Tech, Rice was 2-2 vs Tech when in the WAC, and UTEP is 2-6-1 vs Tech. Tulane has already shown that they don't want to play us, but they will schedule UL-M. These schools know that Tech will beat them regularly. Contrary to what some BB&Bers think, CUSA schools are NOT chomping at the bit for LA/TX/AR recruits and fans to see more of this.

[Dwayne From Minden]

Houston does not want any part of Louisiana Tech. Tech won the last two meetings by a total of 51-14. 1995 in Houston's Robertson Stadium, Tech 19 - Houston 7 (and it wasn't that close) and 1994 in Ruston, Tech 32 - Houston 7. Then Houston coach Kim Helton said the Cougars would never play in Ruston again because we ran the score up.

SMU is 1-3 vs Tech, Tulsa is 2-7 vs Tech, Rice was 2-2 vs Tech when in the WAC, and UTEP is 2-6-1 vs Tech. Tulane has already shown that they don't want to play us, but they will schedule UL-M. These schools know that Tech will beat them regularly. Contrary to what some BB&Bers think, CUSA schools are NOT chomping at the bit for LA/TX/AR recruits and fans to see more of this.

Unfortunately, that was a LONG time ago...

[inudesu]

No...based on a number of factors, including how much we seem to dislike USM, Tulane, and Memphis. Also, the games are fairly easy travel for Ruston (including north LA) folks and students. Past games with Houston were pretty one-sided for UH and it is time for some serious payback on our part. I think we match up pretty evenly (or very soon will) with them. SMU again, because of all the alumni living in the DFW area and having June as coach will make things interesting. Tulane is, well, Tulane. Nuff said. If we are competing with these teams for conference championships, it raises the interest level and the stakes even more.

I think his point, though, is that we were in a conference with some of these regional schools that are supposed to boost attendence and it didn't really blow anyone away. I don't know the numbers, and I bet we did better for SMU and Rice and Tulsa than SJSU and USU, but it wasn't awesome (except maybe that first one with SMU at Indy).

I know the arguments for "regional rivalries" and I agree with most of them. Drivable road games would be great. Talking smack to co-workers and relatives would be great. More than a couple of dozen visting fans would be great. I'm for all of that.

The problem for me is when we act like being in a more regional conference will solve all our problems (not that you're doing this). We've played almost all the teams that get thrown out there as potential rivalries - and while attendence might have been better than average, you can't just throw (even) these teams out there and expect big numbers and a great north Louisiana following to develop.

Right now I think being in CUSA would help most at the bottom of the deck. Better to play a bad Rice than a bad NMSU, about the same to play a ECU as whoever from the WAC, etc. But at the top end, I'd much rather see Tech beat good teams like Hawaii, Boise, or Fresno than below average teams like Memphis, SMU, Tulane, or USM.