Nola Bowl Quiet?

[winwave]

I remember Tommy Bowden saying Tulane could be anything they wanted to be. Then he left because he wanted a chance to win a national championship. Lol

He did say that and he left b/c he knew Tulane 's vision was small time.

[winwave]

The Military Bowl with an AAC tie in pays double that of the NO Bowl.

Same as saying AAC gets double the TV money CUSA gets. It's still peanuts. There are the top tier Bowls in the new set up- Sugar,Rose,Orange Fiesta, Cotton and Peach . Then you have the mid- tier Bowls that have been around for quite some time and are recognizable to even casual fans- Liberty, Gator,Sun,Holiday and Citrus . Then you have the rest.

No one doubts that IF Tulane committed itself to Big Time athletics they have a much higher ceiling than ULL. However the last 65 years and the current state of affairs show clearly that Tulane is not committed to reaching it's vast potential and in fact Tulane is clueless as to what it would take to reach such heights. So the cold harsh reality is that just like ULL we have the ceiling of nabbing the G5 New Years Day slot. The difference is they have a President that gets it and is aggressively going for it. We're left hoping and praying that our new President eventually gets it.

[Eaglewave]

When we win 4 bowl games in a row we can mock ULL

When we prove we are a better football program as well because we are not.

And I very much doubt there's much chance of an 11-2 ULL team winning the SBC title being the team that gets the New Year's Day game.

NIU pulled it off from the MAC. Hawaii pulled it off from the WAC. ULL has a catchy name along with a good fan base who puts _sses in thr seats. I wouldn't count ULL out. They have what it takes to sell tickets.

[ccap05]

Same as saying AAC gets double the TV money CUSA gets. It's still peanuts. There are the top tier Bowls in the new set up- Sugar,Rose,Orange Fiesta, Cotton and Peach . Then you have the mid- tier Bowls that have been around for quite some time and are recognizable to even casual fans- Liberty, Gator,Sun,Holiday and Citrus . Then you have the rest.

No one doubts that IF Tulane committed itself to Big Time athletics they have a much higher ceiling than ULL. However the last 65 years and the current state of affairs show clearly that Tulane is not committed to reaching it's vast potential and in fact Tulane is clueless as to what it would take to reach such heights. So the cold harsh reality is that just like ULL we have the ceiling of nabbing the G5 New Years Day slot. The difference is they have a President that gets it and is aggressively going for it. We're left hoping and praying that our new President eventually gets it.

I think it is time for RD to retire. I contributed to the banner, have written letters and done what little I can. I hope and (perhaps foolishly) that RD will collect his gold watch/retirement benefits and be out the door in 2015.

That all said, Tulane is in a better position as an athletic program now than it was 5 years ago. We are a more attractive candidate for a Big XII (or ACC) offer than we were 5 years ago. There is no question that our football record has to improve on a consistent basis. However, if getting into a P5 conference is the mid-term goal (which would be my mid-term goal) then playing dominating football is not even a major concern. With all of their many problems Tulane has shown that it is investing (and will continue to invest) in athletic infrastructure. Attendance is up and with a few moderately successful years we should be seeing sellout for both football and basketball as well as good crowds for WBB. Where Tulane has failed miserably (in addition to this year's football w/l record) is in building a bigger fan base which translates into tv eyes as opposed to buts in the seat. Tulane can and should be pushing local interest but seems to be much more interested in very short term, small time money opportunities.

Tulane is lucky in that the Big XII does not appear to be expanding in the immediate future- if it did we would not get an invite. However, the writing is on the wall that there will be some re-alignment in the mid-term with Big XII (and perhaps ACC) expansion probable. Tulane has time and is in a very good position to take steps to insure that we are at the front of those considered rather than being on of the outliers.

Tulane is simply in a different place and has different opportunities than UL-Lafayette. For all of UL-Lafayette's vaunted football success (there basketball team is back in the gutter after losing their star player) they still cannot achieve their goal of escaping the SBC. Their football success has come as the result of hiring (and then coughing up the cash to temporarily keep) a very good Coach and in recruiting good athletes many of whom for academic/disciplinary reasons cannot be considered by Tulane as it tries to make itself attractive for a P5 expansion bid. The Lafayette model is not bearing long term fruit (no better conference, no long term basketball success, very cash strapped program) and for many reasons is not the model we need to emulate.

Their are programs that we should be looking at for models on some issues such as Louisville. UL has made the jump to P5 and built up local and statewide interest in a mid-size TV market. We cannot copy their model but we should be learning from UL.

[Eaglewave]

Big 12....Yeah right. We can't even beat UTSA and USA yet. ULL would is in a better place as an athletic program than us. Please stop overrating the AAC. This is not the Big East that we thought we were joining. This is just a senior division of the C-USA. All of this Big 12 talk is ridiculous. Our administration isn't serious enough about big time football to even think about joining the Big 12.

[ccap05]

Big 12....Yeah right. We can't even beat UTSA and USA yet. ULL would is in a better place as an athletic program than us. Please stop overrating the AAC. This is not the Big East that we thought we were joining. This is just a senior division of the C-USA. All of this Big 12 talk is ridiculous. Our administration isn't serious enough about big time football to even think about joining the Big 12.

Eaglewave- The chances of ULL getting into the Big XII are about equal to the chances of me being drafted next year in the NBA. They have a hard time eliciting a flicker of interest from CUSA and are not on anyone's radar for the AAC. Until the next major reshuffle they will stay in the SBC and if/when they eventually move up to CUSA it will only be because the better CUSA teams will have moved to the AAC and CUSA will have already been degraded to SBC II. For that reason, after this post I am not going to post on this thread again because the idea of looking at Tulane's chances of moving up to a P5 through the prism of the Lafayette program is simply ludicrous.

You have absolutely no idea about what the Tulane administration is or is not serious about. You are projecting your opinions of their performance into their intentions. Please feel free correct me if I am wrong and you have any actual inside information. I am not privy to this type of information and do not believe that the Tulane administration is mapping strategy with you.

No one is overrating the AAC. It is not the Big East of 4 years ago and it is not close to being a P5 conference. However, getting into the Big East (which quickly morphed into the AAC) is better than remaining in CUSA. Support RD or not, this was a win for the Tulane program.

When the P5s (Big XII and maybe ACC) look to add schools they are no going to solely be looking at the football won loss record. A moderately successful program is probably required but that is about it. They will be much more interested in fan support (current and projected) for ticket sales and tv eyes, compatibility with the rest of the conference, tv overlap with current programs, recruiting area, and interest of the other schools in visiting the city.

You can rightfully complain that Tulane has missed many opportunities to make bigger strides. You can rightfully suggest that now is the time for RD to be retired.

However, when conferences look to expand it is the existing members who vote. They vote based on what they see as objective facts and not on what critical fans see as missed opportunities. The objective fact is that Tulane is in a significantly better position athletically now than it was 5 years ago. Facilities have been dramatically improved (and certainly need additional major upgrades), we are playing better competition, there is a dramatic uptick in interest in the program, we are selling more tickets to games, local and National press coverage is increasing (at the same time that we have effectively lost our daily newspaper). Many people also believe that the mere fact that interest (and tv eyeballs) in a program will automatically increase with elevation to a P5 conference and improved competition. This is especially true in a state like Louisiana where there is only one P5 program. I believe that you will agree that attendance and tv viewership will shoot up dramatically if Tulane was playing TX, OK, etc. Even if a large number of that increase is TX fans it does not matter to the conference- what they are looking for is increased buts in the seat and eyeballs on the television- they don't care whether the increase comes from Tulane fans or TX fans.

Could Tulane's improvement have been much more significant if RD had not messed so many things up? Of course (and this is why he needs to retire). However Tulane is now in a position where we are at least being talked about as a reasonable addition to the Big XII. If we improve the program from where we are now (and not fixate on lost opportunities of the past 10 years) Tulane's position will be strengthened.

[greenphantom]

ccap05, you make some valid points regarding our potential, however most people are not convinced that we can even string together a few moderately successful seasons. We just finished a 3-9 season with an abysmal offense for the 2nd year in a row and nothing is changing. I was watching the USA/Bowling Green game last night. The announcers mentioned how USA recently fired their offensive coordinator and quickly hired UAB's coordinator. UAB was in the Top 40 in 4 offensive categories and averaged 33 points per game. At Tulane, we just keep our heads buried in the sand and maintain the status quo. We likely have already missed out on our chance to move up to a P5. As far as RD getting any credit for getting us out of CUSA, that is laughable. When conference expansion was hot, Tulane sat back and did nothing, even publicly stating that we were joined at the hip with Rice and SMU.

[winwave]

cap we have all said that Tulane should be following the Louisville and TCU model. However this thread is about ULL and they have a better model than Tulane. They have a President who has made it clear that he gets the importance of athletics. They are building the facilities that their coach wants. Meanwhile Tulane is building a small HS stadium and putting $10 million into a HS gym and downsizing it in the process. Tulane is not better off than 5 years ago. Five years ago Tulane was playing in a world class facility and thus had the room to build what the coaches wanted- an IPF and a football operations building. The B12 woud never allow conference games to be played inYulman nor Devlin.

As for moving up we know that Tulane is viewed as a laughingstock. Tulane is credited w/breaking up the BE and when it was mentioned that the B12 was considering Tulane fans went nuts. Theoretically Tulane has a very high ceiling. Realistically 65 years of history and the continued present day blunders put a very low ceiling on things. Most believe at this point that Tulane has a better chance to be kicked out of the AAC than they do of getting a P5 invite. If people want to be mad about the reality of the situation they need to aim their anger at Tulane and Tulane alone.

[Jonathan]

Rumors that Tulane was responsible for breaking up the Big East and driving off the Catholic basketball schools is erroneous. Each basketball school voted for Tulane's admission to the Big East. As we all know the solution to our problem is retiring Rick Dickson.

[cajunfanatico]

Rumors that Tulane was responsible for breaking up the Big East and driving off the Catholic basketball schools is erroneous. Each basketball school voted for Tulane's admission to the Big East.

I had heard that claim made but never was certain of the circumstances. Here's one person's view:

On Sunday night, December 9, in an undisclosed location in New York City, Mike Aresco stood in front of a room of seven men -- all of whom wanted to know what was being done to save their institutions. Just 10 days earlier, the latest iteration of the Big East Conference had come to open its arms to Tulane University, another school from a smaller conference replacing a large and powerful football-playing member.

The seven schools -- Seton Hall, St. John's, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul and Providence -- had been wary of the addition but were still willing to stomach it based on the promise of a lucrative television rights contract the conference's commissioner was supposed to be delivering. But three days before the meeting, a CBSSports.com report broke the news that a TV rights deal with the decaying league could be worth as little has half of what the Big East was estimating it would command.

It turned out to be the final straw for the league's basketball schools.

Then, on Nov. 29, the Big East added Tulane.

The initial reaction among the seven schools was suspicion. Tulane was another school from Conference USA -- the fifth to be asked to join the league since December 2011 -- with a mediocre football product and an even weaker basketball one. Tulane's football team has two bowl game appearances since Mack Brown left in 1987. The Green Wave have had 10 consecutive losing seasons.

They were in essence, a warm body.

But the basketball schools looked at Tulane's hoops history and did not like what they saw: Nine of the last 12 seasons with a losing record; No NCAA Tournament appearances since 1995; Major NCAA sanctions from a points-shaving scandal, which resulted in a four-year disbandment of the program between 1985 to 1989. The only asset Tulane would bring to the basketball product was that its games would be played at the New Orleans Arena.

After two weeks of putting a good face on the move, Marquette's athletic director Larry Williams -- who's daughter Kristin works in Tulane's compliance office -- couldn't hold back any longer, blasting the addition of the school to ESPN Radio 540 AM in Milwaukee on Dec. 11:

"I was not pleased that we issued an invitation to Tulane without any diligence to what effect that would have on our basketball product, the draw on our RPI and other such things. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to participate as a member of the conference in the deliberation that went into adding that.

There might be well articulated and very deep reasons why you would do it otherwise. But dog-gone-it, I'm not concerned about that. I'm concerned about making sure that Marquette is in a position that it can take advantage of the great investment it's made in being successful in basketball."

With Tulane in the conference's fold, the basketball-only schools first began to seriously consider the concept of breaking out on their own. They wouldn't make any rash decisions right away, but slowly began to put out feelers to take the temperature of what their value might be if they left the Big East Conference behind. The supposed-to-be-increased TV money was still sexy enough to keep them in place, however.

That was about to change.

http://www.nj.com/college-basketball/in ... rence.html

[Jonathan]

Hello, glad to see you have toned your language down. Tulane would not be admitted to the Big East without the support of both football and basketball teams. New Orleans is a Catholic city and a great recruiting ground for Catholic basketball universities. Also they love to visit here. The breakup was based on dollars splits between football and basketball schools and how to split. Or can the Catholic teams do better on their own. For the AAC and most leagues football drives the bus! It worked out well as the AAC had the women's and men's national champions last year and Memphis looks outstanding this year to date!

[Wave755]

Wave fans, time to get past all of this ULALA “Coon-Ass UNO” stuff:

After all, the ULALA basketball team for this young season has already lost to mighty McNeese State, Northwestern State, Milwaukee?, Tulsa and Auburn(5-5). I am sure the ULALA basketball team absolutely cannot wait to finally begin “Mighty” Sunbelt play and seek relief from teams the likes of the Milwaukees of college basketball?

Bryan Salmen of WWL sports did a piece for yesterday’s 6:00 p.m. news showing lots of empty seats for the NOLA Bowl, I have requested of NOLA Task the “real” scanner turnstile count for the game. Last week in the CBD just about everyone here “dodged” free tickets to the NOLA Bowl, I assure you 34,000 is just the BS “tickets distributed” attendance number for the game.

Our great 180 year old tier 1 Tulane University has now raised over 127 million dollars toward its ambitious 1 Billion dollar fundraising goal to add to our already Billion dollar plus endowment. Yet, Tulane and ULALA have very different educational missions, ULALA serves and “educates” students who cannot gain admission to LSU (Ranked 135 by USN&WR), Tulane’s freshman average ACT score is 31. Also, ULALA will have a medical school and a law school on the same day an alligator is finally awarded at Oslo, Norway the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am heartened by how many Wave fans have clicked on to the below youtube video, part of the film, “life among the Cajuns," which so poignantly documents the everyday struggles, trials and tribulations of the Cajuns of Acadiana for trying to turn on and off electronic devices. For the few Wave fans who haven’t yet seen this video, so keenly affecting and moving to the emotions, I once more attach the same: For the attached segment, the documentary attempts to answer the question, HOW MANY CAJUNS (Coon-Asses) DOES IT TAKE TO TURN OFF A CAMCORDER?

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEwbBWpgj4

[jonathanjoseph]

I think it is time for RD to retire. I contributed to the banner, have written letters and done what little I can. I hope and (perhaps foolishly) that RD will collect his gold watch/retirement benefits and be out the door in 2015.

No he needs to be fired. It needs to be made clear that what we've done in the past hasn't worked and that we expect better going forward. No one will believe that things are changing if Rick Dickson gets rewarded.

That all said, Tulane is in a better position as an athletic program now than it was 5 years ago. We are a more attractive candidate for a Big XII (or ACC) offer than we were 5 years ago. There is no question that our football record has to improve on a consistent basis. However, if getting into a P5 conference is the mid-term goal (which would be my mid-term goal) then playing dominating football is not even a major concern. With all of their many problems Tulane has shown that it is investing (and will continue to invest) in athletic infrastructure. Attendance is up and with a few moderately successful years we should be seeing sellout for both football and basketball as well as good crowds for WBB. Where Tulane has failed miserably (in addition to this year's football w/l record) is in building a bigger fan base which translates into tv eyes as opposed to buts in the seat. Tulane can and should be pushing local interest but seems to be much more interested in very short term, small time money opportunities.

This is simply false. The AAC reportedly questioned whether the renovated Fogelman was sufficient and ESPN reportedly considers Yulman insufficient as to warrant national distribution. These facilities are small and cheap compared their member universities as well as the universities being mentioned as candidates for expansion.

No matter how many times people repeat this line of BS from Wilson Center it won't be true or broadly accepted by anyone outside of NOLA.

Tulane is lucky in that the Big XII does not appear to be expanding in the immediate future- if it did we would not get an invite. However, the writing is on the wall that there will be some re-alignment in the mid-term with Big XII (and perhaps ACC) expansion probable. Tulane has time and is in a very good position to take steps to insure that we are at the front of those considered rather than being on of the outliers.

Tulane is simply in a different place and has different opportunities than UL-Lafayette. For all of UL-Lafayette's vaunted football success (there basketball team is back in the gutter after losing their star player) they still cannot achieve their goal of escaping the SBC. Their football success has come as the result of hiring (and then coughing up the cash to temporarily keep) a very good Coach and in recruiting good athletes many of whom for academic/disciplinary reasons cannot be considered by Tulane as it tries to make itself attractive for a P5 expansion bid. The Lafayette model is not bearing long term fruit (no better conference, no long term basketball success, very cash strapped program) and for many reasons is not the model we need to emulate.

What kind of absurd comparison is this? I'm failing to see how their 4 consecutive 9 win football seasons, NCAA tourney hoops team and top rated baseball programs and starting on new athletic facilities that will be clearly better than Tulane's facilities show that their investments are bearing no fruit.

Their are programs that we should be looking at for models on some issues such as Louisville. UL has made the jump to P5 and built up local and statewide interest in a mid-size TV market. We cannot copy their model but we should be learning from UL.

FYI ULL is using the exact same model as Louisville, and it is Tulane trying to do things the exact opposite way.

[Jonathan]

On the U La La board Ragin Pagin on their Rage Page a fun read. Their thread titled "Suck it Tolame" could not stop laughing!

[jonathanjoseph]

You have absolutely no idea about what the Tulane administration is or is not serious about. You are projecting your opinions of their performance into their intentions. Please feel free correct me if I am wrong and you have any actual inside information. I am not privy to this type of information and do not believe that the Tulane administration is mapping strategy with you.

Tulane has absolutely no business keeping what it is "serious about" or not a secret. They aren't the state department and those in charge are stewards of our university. They have legal responsibilities to act in our best interests, not to secretly implement their own agenda. Keeping major strategies a secret is at best unethical and unwise and at worst illegal.

However, when conferences look to expand it is the existing members who vote. They vote based on what they see as objective facts and not on what critical fans see as missed opportunities. The objective fact is that Tulane is in a significantly better position athletically now than it was 5 years ago. Facilities have been dramatically improved (and certainly need additional major upgrades), we are playing better competition, there is a dramatic uptick in interest in the program, we are selling more tickets to games, local and National press coverage is increasing (at the same time that we have effectively lost our daily newspaper). Many people also believe that the mere fact that interest (and tv eyeballs) in a program will automatically increase with elevation to a P5 conference and improved competition. This is especially true in a state like Louisiana where there is only one P5 program. I believe that you will agree that attendance and tv viewership will shoot up dramatically if Tulane was playing TX, OK, etc. Even if a large number of that increase is TX fans it does not matter to the conference- what they are looking for is increased buts in the seat and eyeballs on the television- they don't care whether the increase comes from Tulane fans or TX fans.

Could Tulane's improvement have been much more significant if RD had not messed so many things up? Of course (and this is why he needs to retire). However Tulane is now in a position where we are at least being talked about as a reasonable addition to the Big XII. If we improve the program from where we are now (and not fixate on lost opportunities of the past 10 years) Tulane's position will be strengthened.

We've got to be realistic about this. We have a 23K seat football stadium and a 3.6K basketball arena which are clearly not sufficient for P5 competition. We don't have an IPF, fancy locker rooms or other facilities, which are facilities that all of the other expansion candidates have or have concrete plans to build in process. (Yes, including ULL).

"A dramatic uptick in interest in the program" doesn't hold up to the reality of the attendance figures from the final home games. You still have the same 35K Tulane fans waiting for the program to become serious and win and that's been the case for 30-40 years. All of those 35K fans are waiting for this BS of "we're in a better position than ever" that has been the mantra for 15 years straight to end, and we're blowing (already blown) our chance.

[oliveandblue]

The problem with expanding Yulman is that the fan base isn't there. Building bigger would only result in more empty seats when you do not have a strong product. Also, why wasn't ESPN consulted during stadium construction? How do you spend $75 million and not do that?

The Superdome was killing the program. That wasn't an alternative.

I just want to become a dangerous mid-major program that can do some damage in one of the two major sports. Tulane can EASILY do that if they ever got some sense.

[cajunfanatico]

Wave fans, time to get past all of this ULALA “Coon-Ass UNO” stuff:

After all, the ULALA basketball team for this young season has already lost to mighty McNeese State, Northwestern State, Milwaukee?, Tulsa and Auburn(5-5). I am sure the ULALA basketball team absolutely cannot wait to finally begin “Mighty” Sunbelt play and seek relief from teams the likes of the Milwaukees of college basketball?

Bryan Salmen of WWL sports did a piece for yesterday’s 6:00 p.m. news showing lots of empty seats for the NOLA Bowl, I have requested of NOLA Task the “real” scanner turnstile count for the game. Last week in the CBD just about everyone here “dodged” free tickets to the NOLA Bowl, I assure you 34,000 is just the BS “tickets distributed” attendance number for the game.

Our great 180 year old tier 1 Tulane University has now raised over 127 million dollars toward its ambitious 1 Billion dollar fundraising goal to add to our already Billion dollar plus endowment. Yet, Tulane and ULALA have very different educational missions, ULALA serves and “educates” students who cannot gain admission to LSU (Ranked 135 by USN&WR), Tulane’s freshman average ACT score is 31. Also, ULALA will have a medical school and a law school on the same day an alligator is finally awarded at Oslo, Norway the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am heartened by how many Wave fans have clicked on to the below youtube video, part of the film, “life among the Cajuns," which so poignantly documents the everyday struggles, trials and tribulations of the Cajuns of Acadiana for trying to turn on and off electronic devices. For the few Wave fans who haven’t yet seen this video, so keenly affecting and moving the emotions, I once more attach the same: For the attached segment, the documentary attempts to answer the question, HOW MANY CAJUNS (Coon-Asses) DOES IT TAKE TO TURN OFF A CAMCORDER?

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEwbBWpgj4

Actually, like everyone else around here, I couldn't care less about the NOLA Bowl, who are talking about nothing but the Saints v. the Falcons on Sunday, kick-off @ 12:00 p.m.!!!!!!

[oliveandblue]

College football is getting depressing as-is. Add in Tulane's 3-9 struggles, and it's really hard to justify investing any emotions into the sport in general.

[ccap05]

Wave fans, time to get past all of this ULALA “Coon-Ass UNO” stuff:

After all, the ULALA basketball team for this young season has already lost to mighty McNeese State, Northwestern State, Milwaukee?, Tulsa and Auburn(5-5). I am sure the ULALA basketball team absolutely cannot wait to finally begin “Mighty” Sunbelt play and seek relief from teams the likes of the Milwaukees of college basketball?

Bryan Salmen of WWL sports did a piece for yesterday’s 6:00 p.m. news showing lots of empty seats for the NOLA Bowl, I have requested of NOLA Task the “real” scanner turnstile count for the game. Last week in the CBD just about everyone here “dodged” free tickets to the NOLA Bowl, I assure you 34,000 is just the BS “tickets distributed” attendance number for the game.

Our great 180 year old tier 1 Tulane University has now raised over 127 million dollars toward its ambitious 1 Billion dollar fundraising goal to add to our already Billion dollar plus endowment. Yet, Tulane and ULALA have very different educational missions, ULALA serves and “educates” students who cannot gain admission to LSU (Ranked 135 by USN&WR), Tulane’s freshman average ACT score is 31. Also, ULALA will have a medical school and a law school on the same day an alligator is finally awarded at Oslo, Norway the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am heartened by how many Wave fans have clicked on to the below youtube video, part of the film, “life among the Cajuns," which so poignantly documents the everyday struggles, trials and tribulations of the Cajuns of Acadiana for trying to turn on and off electronic devices. For the few Wave fans who haven’t yet seen this video, so keenly affecting and moving the emotions, I once more attach the same: For the attached segment, the documentary attempts to answer the question, HOW MANY CAJUNS (Coon-Asses) DOES IT TAKE TO TURN OFF A CAMCORDER?

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEwbBWpgj4

Wave755- Your rhetoric is a bit harsh. There is no reason to hate on UL-Laf. I suggest that you calm down by watching a bit of comedy. This is the Rajun Cajun wedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQDYyLT4yg

[jonathanjoseph]

The problem with expanding Yulman is that the fan base isn't there. Building bigger would only result in more empty seats when you do not have a strong product. Also, why wasn't ESPN consulted during stadium construction? How do you spend $75 million and not do that?

The Superdome was killing the program. That wasn't an alternative.

I just want to become a dangerous mid-major program that can do some damage in one of the two major sports. Tulane can EASILY do that if they ever got some sense.

I will continue to push back against this garbage reasoning offered by the Cowen/Dickson administration. Of course the fan base isn't there. That's why building a stadium first was the wrong strategy and now a problem we have to overcome.

You have to 1) build the facilities that 2) attracts the athletes that 3) helps win more games which 4) grows the fan base. This isn't rocket science.

The problem is that if we just spent $100M on facilities for a "mid major program that can do some damage" then we just threw away $100M because that model isn't successful. No other university is pursuing such a strategy (except for Rice) and this has been going on for 10-15 years.

[cajunfanatico]

The Superdome was killing the program. That wasn't an alternative.

I've heard that often o&b but I question sometimes if that was really the case. While last year's bowl game was something of an anamoly for Tulane's program, look at the crowd it drew.............54,000+.

I've got to believe that with a better product on the field, even the Super Dome would have drawn respectable crowds. Put a decent team on the field and schedule OOC like Ole Miss, Miss State, A&M etc and one would think crowds in the 40,000 range would be doable. Yulman should generate the funds to pay for itself, and there's a lot to be said for an OC stadium, but the Super Dome is one great venue for college sports.

[oliveandblue]

The OCS did help attendance - which spiked 27%. I expect a lot of that to fall off next season if the team doesn't show some early promise.

We are attracting decent athletes these days - but the coaching staff is mismanaging them. The offense game plan is hilariously bad.

The model you are referring to would require that Tulane enters a power conference in the next 5 years. Your strategy would have worked had it been put in place 10-15 years ago (before I even became a Tulane student).

Unfortunately, LSU has a permanent hold on the casual fan base - and they are never going to let go, even if Tulane was ranked. LSU will break every rule to ensure that their non-student revenue stream is not interfered with.

I honestly believe Tulane could become a big-time basketball school w/ further upgrades to those facilities. The Power Five have already split - it's done.

[jonathanjoseph]

The Superdome was killing the program. That wasn't an alternative.

I've heard that often o&b but I question sometimes if that was really the case. While last year's bowl game was something of an anamoly for Tulane's program, look at the crowd it drew.............54,000+.

I've got to believe that with a better product on the field, even the Super Dome would have drawn respectable crowds. Put a decent team on the field and schedule OOC like Ole Miss, Miss State, A&M etc and one would think crowds in the 40,000 range would be doable. Yulman should generate the funds to pay for itself, and there's a lot to be said for an OC stadium, but the Super Dome is one great venue for college sports.

Of course this is absolutely correct. Tulane fans have Stockholm Syndrome and continually believe the excuses of the same liars and abusers who have been lying constantly about the program for 15 years.

[Wave755]

Wave fans, time to get past all of this ULALA “Coon-Ass UNO” stuff:

After all, the ULALA basketball team for this young season has already lost to mighty McNeese State, Northwestern State, Milwaukee?, Tulsa and Auburn(5-5). I am sure the ULALA basketball team absolutely cannot wait to finally begin “Mighty” Sunbelt play and seek relief from teams the likes of the Milwaukees of college basketball?

Bryan Salmen of WWL sports did a piece for yesterday’s 6:00 p.m. news showing lots of empty seats for the NOLA Bowl, I have requested of NOLA Task the “real” scanner turnstile count for the game. Last week in the CBD just about everyone here “dodged” free tickets to the NOLA Bowl, I assure you 34,000 is just the BS “tickets distributed” attendance number for the game.

Our great 180 year old tier 1 Tulane University has now raised over 127 million dollars toward its ambitious 1 Billion dollar fundraising goal to add to our already Billion dollar plus endowment. Yet, Tulane and ULALA have very different educational missions, ULALA serves and “educates” students who cannot gain admission to LSU (Ranked 135 by USN&WR), Tulane’s freshman average ACT score is 31. Also, ULALA will have a medical school and a law school on the same day an alligator is finally awarded at Oslo, Norway the Nobel Peace Prize.

I am heartened by how many Wave fans have clicked on to the below youtube video, part of the film, “life among the Cajuns," which so poignantly documents the everyday struggles, trials and tribulations of the Cajuns of Acadiana for trying to turn on and off electronic devices. For the few Wave fans who haven’t yet seen this video, so keenly affecting and moving the emotions, I once more attach the same: For the attached segment, the documentary attempts to answer the question, HOW MANY CAJUNS (Coon-Asses) DOES IT TAKE TO TURN OFF A CAMCORDER?

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDEwbBWpgj4

Wave755- Your rhetoric is a bit harsh. There is no reason to hate on UL-Laf. I suggest that you calm by watching a bit of comedy. This is the Rajun Cajun wedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIQDYyLT4yg

Thank you, Ccap Wave, I will add this video to my documentary collection on "Cajun Life," as representative for a typical ULALA Cajun Wedding.

[winwave]

The problem with expanding Yulman is that the fan base isn't there. Building bigger would only result in more empty seats when you do not have a strong product. Also, why wasn't ESPN consulted during stadium construction? How do you spend $75 million and not do that?

The Superdome was killing the program. That wasn't an alternative.

I just want to become a dangerous mid-major program that can do some damage in one of the two major sports. Tulane can EASILY do that if they ever got some sense.

Tulane has killed it's program. The Dome didn't have a damn thing to do with it.