CajunNation

I've come to realize that fans of most non-major schoos are way more knowledgeable about collegiate sports than most fans of major schools. One of my co-workers is one of the biggest LSU football fans I have ever seen. We were discussing the upcoming football season, and I mentioned that LSU would get a good game from Troy 'cause I've seen them play several times against my Cajuns, and they beat Oklahoma State last season. Now, I'm not kidding here, not only did he not know that Troy was a member of the SBC, he DID NOT KNOW OSU WAS IN THE BIG-12! This is a guy who can tell you the height, weight, age, high school, and 40 time of just about every player on LSU's roster, but he could not tell me in which conference Oklahoma State resides. That, my friend, is called tunnel vision and co-dependent behavior.

I'm sorry about that. It's not meant to be a complete list. I left out A LOT in basketball and baseball. I just wanted to make a point. The baseball stats alone would have taken me longer than I cared to put into it.

Yes. I wanted to show all the things that SBC schools have done since Tech last did something in those areas.

If LaTech were in the SBC, their athletic budget would be middle of the pack at best. If LaTech were in the SBC, their TV market would be last. LaTech has been to 0 bowl games since 2002.-- North Texas has been to 3. Troy has been to 2. Middle Tennessee has been to 1. Arkansas State has been to 1. Florida Atlantic has been to 1. LaTech has been to 0 NCAA tourneys since 1992.-- WKU has been to 7 with 4 tourney wins. UL(http://www.louisiana.edu) has been to 5 with 1 tourney win. South Alabama has been to at least 3. Even ULM has been to 2, and North Texas has been to 1, etc. etc. LaTech has been to 0 NCAA baseball regionals since 1989.-- UL(http://www.louisiana.edu) has been to 11 regionals, 2 super regionals, and 1 CWS. Florida Atlantic has been to 7 and 1 super regional. etc. etc. LaTech's facilities would be middle of the pack at best in the SBC and trails several SBC members in current or completed facility improvements.

The SBC in the Mobile Bowl just makes too much sense for it not to happen in the future. What I would like to see the SBC work for in regards to a 3rd bowl is to start one in San Antonio as a secondary bowl to the Alamo much like we have done with the N.O. Bowl.

Good luck to you guys from Cajun Country!! I'm hoping that after the next conference realignment is over, the BOBCATS, MEAN GREEN, and the CAJUNS end up in the same league. That would be pretty cool.

ArkStFan on the matter: http://www.beltboard.com/forum/forum_entry...&order=time << Of course CUSA has contacted USA. It's called due diligence. It's not an indication of a future invite. I promise you that Waters and Banosky of CUSA have pretty good information on every member of the other's conference and every college in or near the region that is publicly or privately talking football at the FBS level. The same can be said out west of Thompson and Benson. The same can be said in the Midwest of the MAC commissioner. They need to keep an eye on those developments, not just because of expansion, even though their expansions would likely only be triggered by defection. They need to know about possibilities of new FBS conferences forming from groups of schools moving up. They need to be able to give members coherent information about scheduling new schools (ie. when they are expected to count against the I-AA schedule restraints, when against I-A, when they will be I-A). Some WKU fans got hot and bothered thinking the MAC was about to invite them when the MAC did the same due diligence. There was not only not an invite, my MAC contacts say WKU didn't have enough support to get past the expansion committee much less the entire conference. I'd be shocked if CUSA hadn't touched base, it's part of the job. >>

You're talking about perceptions. To some people, perceptions have nothing to do with reality. Some people will never accept reality if it doesn't fit the way they think things ought to be. Do you realize that there are still people that get paid to give their opinions on TV that still think Boise didn't deserve to be on the same field with Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl?. The fact is you could take all of the players from the majority of the teams in the SBC and CUSA, and mix them up, put them on different teams, and nobody would notice.

We gave him one more year. That's all. We had the money to buy him out, but decided to not do it due to the fact that we are getting a new university president next spring and thought it would be best if the AD and the president were on the same page as far as who the new coach would be. Bustle has one year. That's it. Winning season, or he's gone. There are also a lot of new faces in the athletic department with a lot of new ideas. You people have absoultely no idea how much our president of the last 30 years has held us back athletically. There are A LOT of things going on in Lafayette behind the scenes right now that are changing the face of the university. Big time money is flowing in and Big time changes are being made to the way the athletic department does business. We are tickling the dragon's tail........

MOTHER OF ALL PLAYOFFS RULES ---All eleven conference champions get bid. ---Next 13 highest BCS ranked schools get bid, total of 24. ---Highest 8 seeds get first round bye. ---Seeds 9-24 begin First round action at higher seed's home field on second Saturday of December. ---Sweet 16 would play on third Saturday of December, once again at higher seed's home field. ---Elite 8 would play Christmas weekend. This would begin use of "BCS" bowls, Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange. ---Final-Four would be New Year's weekend, once again at 2 of the 4 "BCS" bowl sites. ---National Championship game would be, once again at 1 of the "BCS" bowl sites. Instead of 4+1, it would be 4+2+1. FIRST-ROUND MATCHUPS WEEK 1 #24 FLORIDA ATLANTIC at #9 WEST VIRGINIA #23 CENTRAL MICHIGAN at #10 HAWAII #22 UCF at #11 ARIZONA STATE #21 SOUTH FLORIDA at #12 FLORIDA #20 VIRGINIA at #13 ILLINOIS #19 TEXAS at #14 BOSTON COLLEGE #18 WISCONSIN at #15 CLEMSON #17 BYU at #16 TENNESSEE SWEET 16 WEEK 2 (BYU/Tenn winner) at #1 OHIO STATE (Wisconsin/Clesmson winner) at #2 LSU (Texas/BC winner) at #3 VIRGINIA TECH (Virginia/Illinois winner) at #4 OKLAHOMA (South Florida/Florida winner) at #5 GEORGIA (UCF/Arizona State winner) at #6 MISSOURI (Central Michigan/Hawaii winner) at #7 USC (Florida Atlantic/West Virgina winner) at #8 KANSAS ELITE EIGHT WEEK 3 Rose/Fiesta/Sugar/Orange FINAL FOUR WEEK4 (2 of the BCS bowls repeat host) CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK5 (1 of the BCS bowls repeat host) SUMMARY ---This system would allow almost all of the other major bowl games outside of the "BCS" bowls to still serve a purpose, and for very good schools not making the tourney to still have a post-season. ---This system would weed out most of the lesser bowls that nobody watches, and payouts are small. ---This playoff should be conducted at a time that does not interfere with the NFL playoffs, which is why I chose the dates I did. ---The "home game" format and the first round bye format are necessary to involve as many teams as I did. The reward of another home game has many benefits, financial or otherwise. ---In order for the major conferences to buy into a playoff, it would have to be seen as almost "rigged" in their favor. I believe first round byes, home field advantage, and multiple at-larges from each major conference, all based on strength of individual schools, is key to getting this passed. ---The major conferences will never go for a playoff that would guarantee equal representation to non-major conferences. You have to go to at least 24 teams to ensure that the each major conference has at least 2 schools in the playoff on most years. ---Finally, the money generated by such a playoff would dwarf the basketball touney revenues.

I agree. There is way too much potential to not take them. If you're thinking long term, and we should, Texas State is a no-brainer. In a 60 mile radius of San Marcos, there is around 3 MILLION people. That's a whole lot of televisions.

The reason Boise State has crashed the BCS, and the reason Boise State and Hawaii are flirting with it this year while Troy languishes at #38 is SCHEDULING. Since '03, Boise State has played regular season games against teams from BCS conferences 6 times. Since '03, Troy has played regular season games against teams from BCS conferences 16 times. Both schools have 2 BCS regular season wins in this time frame. Obviously, the new policy adopted by the SBC that restricts each school to no more than 2 money games a year is a sound one. We will have more bowl eligible teams, and we will have a better chance of getting a team in the BCS.

Let's dream, shall we? Hawaii Fresno State San Jose State Nevada Idaho Boise State Utah State New Mexico State North Texas Arkansas State Louisiana Tech Louisiana (ULL) Even better, bye bye Idaho Hawaii Fresno State San Jose State Nevada Boise State Utah State New Mexico State Texas State North Texas Arkansas State Louisiana Tech Louisiana (ULL) This would rock. Also, getting San Antonio to host a second bowl game for the E-WAC would be easy to do, especially if Texas State were included at some point. The SBC would survive. They could easily add App St and Georgia Southern to get back to 8.

Before last night we were 0-13 in non-conference play. The key is who we played: #3 OKLAHOMA #5 FLORIDA #6 TEXAS #9 LOUISVILLE #12 PENN STATE #16 ARKANSAS #17 SOUTH CAROLINA #20 CLEMSON MARYLAND OKLAHOMA STATE TULSA OHIO SMU All but 2 of these games were road games. The only truly disappointing thing about our results so far in that we didn't take at least 2 of 3 from Tulsa, Ohio, and SMU. I would venture to guess that we have had the toughest non-conference schedule of any conference in the country.

"Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?"--- Josey Wales "Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy"--- Josey Wales "I saw you beat that man, like I never so no man get beat before, and the man...kept...coming...after you. Now we don't need that kinda man in our lives."--- Duke to Apollo Creed(Rocky II)