Timetable on Flying the Coop?

Thoughts on when/if the Cardinals should fly the coop to a new conference?

The American South Conference was a good conference them, in my opinion. But the trips to places like Bowling Green, KY... Orlando and Jacksonville, FL... and others were a financial drain after the merger with the Sun Belt.

The current configuration of the Southland has numerous schools that aren't exactly adding much to the conference in: quality of facilities, revenue added through TV ratings and/or attendance (home or away). I feel things are different from 1987 when they formed the old ASC... then again, if the ASC hadn't merged with the Sun Belt, the Cardinals might have never returned to the Southland.

There are donors out there who would write the checks for more season tickets for the revenue sports (and the cash be used to upgrade other facilities), if they and some of their potential brethren formed a new conference that didn't include a few of the anvils that plague the SLC.

Thoughts?

I see the only drag on the conference is HBU. Other schools have some issues, but HBU has not stepped up to the plate as for as competition or facilities. I would kick them out of the conference. UIW seems to be working as best and fast as they can and have some of the big money folks in San Antonio behind them. I always thought that bringing in ACU was a no brainer since they have always had respectable athletic programs.

Personally, I would like to see Lamar grow more in the athletic department before jumping to a different conference. We need to get all the weak sisters off the athletic schedules and have to get attendance up in football, basketball, and baseball. In football this will require winning on a consistent basis. Basketball has not won enough to energize the fan base and home non-conference schedule has been a joke that last few decades and looks Like that maybe changing. There is no reason we can’t have schools like University of Houston, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, ULM, Texas State, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, etc. consistently playing on a home/home basis in the Montagne. It is maybe just that some coaches want to pad their records. If that is the case, get rid of those coaches.

Lamar should have the reputation of an athletic program that has winners in their sports and in the classroom.

I see the only drag on the conference is HBU. Other schools have some issues, but HBU has not stepped up to the plate as for as competition or facilities. I would kick them out of the conference. UIW seems to be working as best and fast as they can and have some of the big money folks in San Antonio behind them. I always thought that bringing in ACU was a no brainer since they have always had respectable athletic programs.

Personally, I would like to see Lamar grow more in the athletic department before jumping to a different conference. We need to get all the weak sisters off the athletic schedules and have to get attendance up in football, basketball, and baseball. In football this will require winning on a consistent basis. Basketball has not won enough to energize the fan base and home non-conference schedule has been a joke that last few decades and looks Like that maybe changing. There is no reason we can’t have schools like University of Houston, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, ULM, Texas State, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, etc. consistently playing on a home/home basis in the Montagne. It is maybe just that some coaches want to pad their records. If that is the case, get rid of those coaches.

Lamar should have the reputation of an athletic program that has winners in their sports and in the classroom.

Also, We need to get over the need for “big money people” funding Lamar Athletics. We need the grassroots common Lamar fans to step-up and join the Cardinal Club and put a little money ($100-$500/year) where their mouth is. McNeese does a great job of this, so can we!

Heres a good article on why to stay put

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2019/1/31/18200696/fbs-membership-leave-fcs

Heres a good article on why to stay put

 

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2019/1/31/18200696/fbs-membership-leave-fcs

I was adamantly against LU going to the SLC in the 90's. Felt like it was a move to try to save Grey Giovanni's job as BB HC because he was middle/lower tier Sun Belt. I have been for, since bringing football back, moving to FBS. But realistically, unless some very deep pockets come forward and pour in tens of millions, like maybe 5 tens of millions, then moving to FBS is likely just not financially viable. The stadium would need to be upgraded to 40k plus in capacity on the football side. Not even addressing the rest of the facilities although the Montagne is fine with the exception of freshening up. But your article Puddin is showing that the arms race in the power 5 conferences is putting the pressure on the ULL's, ULM's, TX St's and UTSA's where they are just potential stepping stones for coaches looking to land at Texas/Alabama/Ohio State to get to the $5 million plus payday contracts. This is the same as the Yankees letting everyone else develop talent and then buying them once they become superstar's.

I am hopeful that Morgan will, in a few years, get LU on several deep runs in the FCS playoffs and we get 5 years at least before he takes his big pay raise by jumping to a FBS school. LU might be able to get him to $500k if we were competing for a FCS national championship, but that is probably the ceiling unless the deep pockets show up and unload significant cash into the program.

Relative goes ew la la. They have poured tons of money into athletics. Set a school record for wins in a season. Their attendance dropped. They average about 16-18k for football (in a stadium that seats 41k. (Winning plus 1.00 beer and still bad attendance for fbs)

Their basketball attendance sucks

They did have 3500 at a softball game, tho:ohmy:

They only have to fight LS frickin U for fans. We gotta fight ut, aggy, lsu, and the high school fans stuck in their glory days.

id rather play sam and sfa than georgia state and so bammy

Relative goes ew la la. They have poured tons of money into athletics. Set a school record for wins in a season. Their attendance dropped. They average about 16-18k for football (in a stadium that seats 41k. (Winning plus 1.00 beer and still bad attendance for fbs)

 

Their basketball attendance sucks

 

They did have 3500 at a softball game, tho:ohmy:

 

They only have to fight LS frickin U for fans. We gotta fight ut, aggy, lsu, and the high school fans stuck in their glory days.

 

id rather play sam and sfa than georgia state and so bammy

I'd rather play La Tech, UL, Louisiana Monroe, UNT, UTA, ASU among others.

What I'm seeing people say (so I don't have to quote each reply):

- numerous people who want the Cards to move up to FBS (many who wanted LU to stay in the Sun Belt)

- many people who think "consistently lead the Southland in football and basketball first"

- the reminder that, if the lower tier of the Southland got jettisoned to make a more competitive conference, that just turns the old "middle third" of the conference into the "bottom half"

- a call to up the attendance in all sports

I agree with a lot of those sentiments- especially the call for alums (in Houston, in the Triangle, etc.) and locals who want to support LU to either join the Cardinal Club or both and buy tickets for games. Every extra of a ticket at the gate makes the game more exciting. An extra 1000 seats per game is an extra $20,000 in revenue (or $100K for the season) and helps turn The PUS into a better homefield advantage. I'm upping my tickets for next year... need to get a better view of the game with this new system. The Schultz Administration never really energized the fan-base. Even making the FCS playoffs didn't get my household excited. Coach Morgan does.

I see the only drag on the conference is HBU. Other schools have some issues, but HBU has not stepped up to the plate as for as competition or facilities. I would kick them out of the conference. UIW seems to be working as best and fast as they can and have some of the big money folks in San Antonio behind them. I always thought that bringing in ACU was a no brainer since they have always had respectable athletic programs.

Personally, I would like to see Lamar grow more in the athletic department before jumping to a different conference. We need to get all the weak sisters off the athletic schedules and have to get attendance up in football, basketball, and baseball. In football this will require winning on a consistent basis. Basketball has not won enough to energize the fan base and home non-conference schedule has been a joke that last few decades and looks Like that maybe changing. There is no reason we can’t have schools like University of Houston, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, ULM, Texas State, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, etc. consistently playing on a home/home basis in the Montagne. It is maybe just that some coaches want to pad their records. If that is the case, get rid of those coaches.

Lamar should have the reputation of an athletic program that has winners in their sports and in the classroom.

HBU went from 1-10 to 5-7 last season and, with a stellar recruiting class, should have a winning season this year. But I agree with you somewhat on certain points.

HBU went from 1-10 to 5-7 last season and, with a stellar recruiting class, should have a winning season this year. But I agree with you somewhat on certain points.

I’ve always thought HBU coaches were the best recruiters in the SLC since their athletic facilities are comparable to a 4A high school.

I was adamantly against LU going to the SLC in the 90's. Felt like it was a move to try to save Grey Giovanni's job as BB HC because he was middle/lower tier Sun Belt. I have been for, since bringing football back, moving to FBS. But realistically, unless some very deep pockets come forward and pour in tens of millions, like maybe 5 tens of millions, then moving to FBS is likely just not financially viable. The stadium would need to be upgraded to 40k plus in capacity on the football side. Not even addressing the rest of the facilities although the Montagne is fine with the exception of freshening up. But your article Puddin is showing that the arms race in the power 5 conferences is putting the pressure on the ULL's, ULM's, TX St's and UTSA's where they are just potential stepping stones for coaches looking to land at Texas/Alabama/Ohio State to get to the $5 million plus payday contracts. This is the same as the Yankees letting everyone else develop talent and then buying them once they become superstar's.

 

I am hopeful that Morgan will, in a few years, get LU on several deep runs in the FCS playoffs and we get 5 years at least before he takes his big pay raise by jumping to a FBS school. LU might be able to get him to $500k if we were competing for a FCS national championship, but that is probably the ceiling unless the deep pockets show up and unload significant cash into the program.

Stadium upgraded to 40K plus capacity? You're delusional man. The stadium could only be expanded to hold 28K - it's in writing somewhere. But I agree with you on Morgan and Lamar eventually making some deep playoff runs. I would rather us build something like North Dakota State than be doormats in the Sun Belt or Conference USA. And who knows - with the Power 5 maybe forming their own league in 5-7 years, once television contracts expire, the FCS may be merged with the Group of Five. So everyone wins... sort of.

There are those in other parts of the conference that might claim Lamar as a drag on the conference. I was not glad when the SLC added IW, HBU and ACU to the conference. Lamar has among the best facilities for the major sports, but attendance really stinks and over the last three years IW has a better record than Lamar in football and ACU has out performed Lamar in basketball. The problem with the SLC is it doesn't compete out of conference as a whole. I think it would be great if Lamar could get to an FBS conference but it would be better if Lamar would just win and finish at the top of the SLC in all sports. I don't think there would be anything wrong with an FCS national championship in football.

I totally agree with you - let's start winning conference championships in football and hopefully play for it all in Frisco one day.

HBU went from 1-10 to 5-7 last season and, with a stellar recruiting class, should have a winning season this year. But I agree with you somewhat on certain points.

I looked over their recruiting class- wasn't impressed. Was cool seeing that Kerry Cash's kid signed with them... remember Kerry and Keith when they were at UT. They do have a lot of guys who are from winning programs- but not too many of them were impact players.

But, in respect to the assertion their facilities aren't on-par, that's spot on. Their football stadium seats 5,000... there are HS gyms in Houston that seat more than that... and more important than capacity, they have averaged over 2500 once in the last 4 years that have attendance info available... and their basketball arena seats 1000.

They're not adding to the conference.

I agree with Skinny. Lamar needs to improve its overall athletic success, before even considering jumping, to another conference. walk first, then run.

One the very few things I've ever agreed with Dracula on!!! Let's win some conference championships in multiple sports before we even think about leaving the Southland!