Someone brought it up in another thread and it always gets me excited but when is this going to happen? I know we have already had a thread where people gave their guesses as to who will be where but what about the WHEN? Is this going to happen anytime soon? next year, 5 years, 10 years? WHEN!?!?!?!?

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Originally Posted by CajunCanaille _ Someone brought it up in another thread and it always gets me excited but when is this going to happen? I know we have already had a thread where people gave their guesses as to who will be where but what about the WHEN? Is this going to happen anytime soon? next year, 5 years, 10 years? WHEN!?!?!?!? _

Preferably after UL demonstrates competence in Football and Basketball for a period of 3-4 years in a row.

Also, after some more of the planned facility upgrades are completed.

These things happening represent our best chance to be in a good position for realignment.

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Originally Posted by CajunCanaille _ Someone brought it up in another thread and it always gets me excited but when is this going to happen? I know we have already had a thread where people gave their guesses as to who will be where but what about the WHEN? Is this going to happen anytime soon? next year, 5 years, 10 years? WHEN!?!?!?!? _

Here is what I posted on another thread:

Originally Posted by HoustonCajun
_ The SBC needs to get rid of Denver, UNO, UALR and even USA. How many years will it take for a start-up USA football program to go 1A? It is not easy to move up from 1AA to 1A. I don't know the time frame, but seriously doubt it will happen in less than 5 years. The SBC is currently at 8, will add WKU this year for 9 and LA Tech would take it to 10. A couple more teams would really make the league attractive with a championship game and a complete all sports conference. The question is, who would those 2 teams be? Do we wait several years for USA and hope they have the support to go 1A? That same question goes to UTSA who will be starting football in another year. Why do we want to wait around for them? They certainly have promise, but that is really long range. In the meantime, let's cut our travel losses and improve play against all sports teams. Tulane will NEVER join the SBC, LA Tech might have to. We can remain at 10 and strategically add 2 more members at the right time.

We are not the only schools facing travel and other budgetary problems. As the article points out, the C-USA is spread out across half the country and will likely need to reallign. What I personally would prefer over the SBC is a more regional conference that might include:

South - UL, Tulane, USM, Rice, Houston, Troy
North - LA Tech, SMU, Tulsa, Memphis, UAB, UNT (can substitute Ark. State, ULM, WKU or MTSU for UNT, but UNT makes to most regional sense)

The South division that I have us in is all bus travel for the teams and easily drivable for fans. That is a huge savings on expenses.

UTEP can replace LA Tech and return to the WAC, which is a much better regional fit for it. There appears to be some question whether or not UAB can actually sustain football, so we'll see. But, they were an original member of C-USA and will not be left out. Memphis longs to be a member of the Big East, but that will only happen if the Big East goes all sports and drops the basketball only playing schools. Then, E. Carolina, C. Florida and Marshall come into play, along with Memphis. If UAB drops football and Memphis moves to the Big East, add MTSU and Ark. State to our newly formed conference. WKU is only starting its first year of 1A football, but certainly has great potential. For the sake of this example and in the interim, the remaining SBC members, ULM, FIU, FAU, WKU, Ark. State & MTSU can remain a viable conference. There are certainly several scenarios that others might develop and it would be interesting to see those. Conference reallignment is not dead and is still very actively discussed on a conference reallignment board. UL needs to quickly improve its football and basketball status or be on the out looking in when and if conference reallignment does occur. A bowl game this year would do wonders for us along with our continuing facillity improvements and RCAF. The timing of our newly found success could come at just the right time.

Something will need to take place for schools not only in Louisiana but around the country facing increasing expenses and needing a more regional conference with lower travel costs and closer proximity of member schools leading to better rivalries and increased home attendance, which in turn leads to increased revenue. My preference, obviously, would be the above conference that would include UL. It makes the most sense to me from a geographic and rivalry standpoint, not to mention opening more recruiting doors with our much stronger presence in Texas. Whether or not it makes the same sense to the other schools included is debatable. Anyway, we have a few months to football season and, for me anyway, it is a fun and interesting topic to discuss. _

This type of discussion always brings up lots of wants/desires of schools to be associated with, etc. Ultimately I hope we find an improved regional match with quality schools that can promote good rivalries, good travel opportunities, and some fiscal responsibilities for the member schools. The Sun Belt is not really that bad WRT regional ties once Denver moves on. The flip side is south Florida. Those two schools (FAU/FIU) add a great market to the conference; but at the same time its too far for most to travel when you consider us, NT, ASU, ULM, etc.

Similar discussion going on at the NT forum WRT Texas State in particular. I may be in the minority here; but I think they would make a solid conference mate once the move to FBS is made. Great travel partner for NT, and nice road trip for us.

Shof

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Originally Posted by CajunZ1 _ Preferably after UL demonstrates competence in Football and Basketball for a period of 3-4 years in a row. Also, after some more of the planned facility upgrades are completed. These things happening represent our best chance to be in a good position for realignment. _

You have hit the nail on the head in terms of priorities in the "here & now". Just add private (or outside funding) to your list.

You guys think small if you want to be big you have to think bigger, like a real bcs conference please! the conference you guys want will be more of the same...lets think bigger.

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Originally Posted by SwampKing _ You guys think small if you want to be big you have to think bigger, like a real bcs conference please! the conference you guys want will be more of the same...lets think bigger. _

How do you expect to get into a BCS conference? Regionally, the only BCS conference we would get into would be the SEC. We can't compete with them in any aspect of athletics from not only competition but also from facilities, attendance etc... Dude, you are not going to be a cajun fan for long if you are expecting BCS alignment. It won't happen! I think we'd all love to see it happen but there are too many things that work against us, not to mention #1 being LSU would never allow it anyhow. I think you are misinformed as to the possibilites of attaining this level.

Come on guys, quit taking this rodeo clown seriously.

I'm laughing so hard at his nonsense it's making my ribs hurt. Heck, we all know the WAC is the best conference in all the wide wide world of sports. LOL, that's where we want to be right? With the LaTexsters, right?

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Originally Posted by DestinCajun Come on guys, quit taking this rodeo clown seriously. I'm laughing so hard at his nonsense it's making my ribs hurt. Heck, we all know the WAC is the best conference in all the wide wide world of sports. LOL, that's where we want to be right? With the LaTexsters, right?

Right.

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Originally Posted by CajunNation Right. _

Your vote doesn't count.