NSD-2-3-21

[HoustonWave]

At the end of the day, it’s a fact that we are not the football program we were since Buffet Bob’s first year here. Better decisions have been with coaches, and smarter scheduling has allowed us to not sit at home during the Bowl Season. Call these AAC Bowls and that 54k attended NOLA Bowl “nobody cares bowls” all you want, but the fact remains that they are better than what we have been been seeing for a long time.
(And this is coming from a person who hates the AAC Bowl Affiliations and wants to see better!)

I push our Athletics Program to not look back and fall back into the 2-10 and 3-9 Tulane teams we have seen in that span. I push our administrators not to allow us to fall back into a position where a new coach needs to be hired who needs to build a brand new car with no tools.

Contrast to whatever I type about schedules, I will always push for us to be a better AAC program in conference play. The day we find out that we are making more upgrades to our practice facilities will be the day that I know we are serious about being a Top 25 program.

And until the AAC teams can regularly win these AAC bowl games, let's back off being dismissive of them.

[DfromCT]

I labeled them "nobodycares.com bowls" because it's an accurate label. Very very few viewers tune in that aren't fans of the participants. Yeah, you might get some gamblers, and bars that have nothing else to show. But most of these bowl games have no ratings and really do nothing to help build our non-existent fan base. Yes, it's better than staying home, I agree 1000%. But that, to me, is as far as it goes. And can we also quiet the talk of P6? The AAC looked no better than any G5 in 2020. And the conference's record against P5's and in bowl games is not going to argue that we're a P6.

[Wave QB]

At the end of the day, it’s a fact that we are not the football program we were since Buffet Bob’s first year here. Better decisions have been with coaches, and smarter scheduling has allowed us to not sit at home during the Bowl Season. Call these AAC Bowls and that 54k attended NOLA Bowl “nobody cares bowls” all you want, but the fact remains that they are better than what we have been been seeing for a long time.
(And this is coming from a person who hates the AAC Bowl Affiliations and wants to see better!)

I push our Athletics Program to not look back and fall back into the 2-10 and 3-9 Tulane teams we have seen in that span. I push our administrators not to allow us to fall back into a position where a new coach needs to be hired who needs to build a brand new car with no tools.

Contrast to whatever I type about schedules, I will always push for us to be a better AAC program in conference play. The day we find out that we are making more upgrades to our practice facilities will be the day that I know we are serious about being a Top 25 program.

And until the AAC teams can regularly win these AAC bowl games, let's back off being dismissive of them.

The AAC Bowl Affiliations are disappointing compared to what was expected in joining the Big East. Instead, our Bowl Affiliations scream “Big C-USA” to the college football world.

I do agree that our conference needs to win them no matter how much we aren’t pleased. Winning will open up the door to better Bowl Games.

[winwave]

In CUSA we had the Liberty Bowl affiliation. It was disappointing that this league couldn't hold on to that.

[Wave QB]

I labeled them "nobodycares.com bowls" because it's an accurate label. Very very few viewers tune in that aren't fans of the participants. Yeah, you might get some gamblers, and bars that have nothing else to show. But most of these bowl games have no ratings and really do nothing to help build our non-existent fan base. Yes, it's better than staying home, I agree 1000%. But that, to me, is as far as it goes. And can we also quiet the talk of P6? The AAC looked no better than any G5 in 2020. And the conference's record against P5's and in bowl games is not going to argue that we're a P6.

I don’t see P6 either.

AAC 2020 vs Non-Conference
vs P5 (1-4)
vs G5 (5-2)
vs FBS Independent (2-1)
vs FCS (4-0)
Bowl Record (1-5)


Total 13-12

[oliveandblue]

The nicest thing I can say about the AAC is that they don't lose many FCS and G5 regular season games.

It's the 6th best league, with MW and Sun Belt (!) also pretty competitive. MAC and CUSA have been dragging.

[Lutzow46]

Here's what I believe after following the Green Wave for 50+ years. We should not be comparing our school and its football team to the likes of ULL, UAB or even USF and UCF. These are public universities with lower academic standards. We need to look at our true peers, i.e. private universities that play in P5 conferences and that are about the same size as Tulane and have a good academic reputation. For example:

TCU
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Georgia Tech
Duke

and for the G5, we could add:

Rice
Southern Methodist
Tulsa

These are schools in our region and they recruit in Louisiana. Can we out-recruit them? Do we have better facilities and a larger stadium? Could we play these schools and consistently win? Are we on par in football and in other sports? Do we have a strong alumni group and solid fan base? If not, we should be striving to reach that level.

Well, SMU and Tulsa are in our conference, so we will see them anyway. When it comes to local G5’s, I agree that Rice, (who has a winning record vs us and is 5-1 in our last six meetings), should be on the schedule every so often or in a series. Rice is playing LSU in 2022.


While not comparing, UL-Boudin and UL-PaperMill are two in state Sun Belt teams that should each scheduled at least every two years. The Cajuns always bring a good crowd to New Orleans, and Yulman needs big local crowds. The dome had 18K in attendance when the Monroe guys came to town in our last meeting, and their stadium saw 20k when we took a trip up to North Louisiana in 2013. Playing La Tech, (who loved having Tulane in their stadium in our last meeting), doesn’t hurt us at all.

Scheduling one of these Louisiana G5 programs every so often are always fun for local fans, and it keeps local recruits knowing who is the boss.

It is not just football where we should be in the lead. Look at the basketball, baseball, tennis and other sports teams that schools such as Rice, Baylor, SMU, TCU, Vanderbilt, and Tulsa showcase. Can or could we win against these schools in multiple sports?

[MicMan]

Who's boss? It was Louisiana U finished 15th ranked in 2020.

[Wave755]

Who's boss? It was Louisiana U finished 15th ranked in 2020.

Good one, Burger Man!