CaribbeanGreen

Per Harry's tweet, it's nowhere close to 100k. Still sounds like a nice crowd, though.

That's right... So in about a 10-15 year span we've had SWLA, USL, ULL, and UL, right?

Oh, no doubt. Today is an outlier by every measure regarding ULL attendance. They're still doing a healthy mid-high 20's thus far, because they're winning... something I think we would easily attain in the same circumstance.

Another point to be made here - we overrate the "big name" wins around here. ULM beat Alabama just a few short seasons ago. Nick Saban's Alabama, no less... not a down year from a lame duck coach like our Tech win or ULL's Aggie win. Meanwhile, it did next to nothing for their program, their attendance, or their now fired staff. ULL has a 1-score home win over Kent State, a 17 point home win over Nicholls State, and a couple of Belt wins. Now, with a chance to seal their dream bowl once and for all within their reach and homecoming on tap, the crowds are huge. It's about CONSISTENT winning, being in the conference race, and having the games mean something come November. I'd rather get drilled by Clemson and be in the Belt race than vice versa 10 times out of 10.

When did they ditch the SELA name anyway? Late 90's? You bring up an interesting point, though.... I don't know that there's a school in major college football with more of an identity crisis than UL-L/M.... seemingly constant name changes, uniform/logo changes, major complex on the whole Louisiana vs. Lafayette thing... yet through all that (and all the branding/naming/NTSU crap we argue about all the time), they start winning and everything's a-ok.

Good points all - but I have more faith this time around. Do you recall what our gameday atmosphere was like during the title runs? It was HORRENDOUS. No tailgating to speak of, no scene, no pageantry. It was a dismal college football experience, no matter how much fun the diehards may have been having. It's so much bad timing... if we had had that run today, with Apogee - or even at Fouts post-tailgating opening up - we'd have seen much, much larger crowds. There's no doubt that atmosphere plays a role.. but it's winning above all else.

No, but we beat Texas Tech (1997), who had a better record than the '96 A&M team. Pointing to a win over a 6-loss Aggie team 15 years ago as reason for ULL's crowd? Maybe I'm missing something.They've had a lot of bad crowds and losing football since then. I'd venture to say if they had opened this season against Houston, they wouldn't have had 100k tailgating. If they were 0'fer, they wouldn't have had the 6th largest crowd in history last week against Troy... and yes, by the way, the 6th biggest crowd in school history wasn't a sellout. Is Lafayette a great SBC roadtrip? Do they have really good, fun fans? Absolutely. They're winning. That's why it's this big. That's why we haven't spoken about "those big ULL crowds!!" in the past several years. Any difference between us and them (which wasn't even what I was referring to) is where you can start looking at external factors (DFW vs. lafayette, etc.)

OMG. I'm not the guy in the next cubicle here.

We can analyze it all we want... but when ULL was at the bottom of the standings, they weren't selling out and didn't have 1/5th that for tailgating. At the end of the day, the math is pretty simple.

If only he'd had hands and greater-than-pit-bull speed.... ... what might have been. Good luck to him.

ULL is good. Not saying we can't win, we absolutely can - but don't undervalue the Cajuns. They're basically a win away from ensuring a NO Bowl berth - or utter paradise for Cajun fans. Not to mention they're drawing well, it's their homecoming, and they've got all the confidence in the world. Meanwhile, we've been more than terrible on the road and haven't beaten a single team with a win over a FBS opponent. I'm not saying I agree with what these facts are saying, and I'm not saying we won't pull one out in Lafayette - but I'm saying that the Vegas line makes a lot of sense from a gambler's perspective.

OMG!

Branding let me love you down...... .... so many ways to name you.......

Black jerseys can't be far behind, amirite?

Sure, throwing the ball away is great and all - but it's one thing to be frustrated and driven half crazy by your QB, and it's another to get rid of the guy. For every terrible pick, you have those plays where he slips a tackle, extends a play, and makes some miraculous completion. It's just how he plays. I absolutely wish he was more careful sometimes, but not at the expense of the upside. In the first half today, Romo threw for over 200 yards with multiple TD's, with a running game so ineffective we couldn't punch it in from 1 yard out.... that 27-3 lead didn't build itself. You have to have a lead to flush away. For over a decade, we didn't have a QB who could build a lead in the first place. and that's the thing.... maddening mistakes AT MADDENING TIMES.....yet when you catch your breath and look big picture, you've got a QB who is Top 10 in the league in QB rating, Top 5 in TD's, Top 5 in Total Yards, Top 5 in Yards per Game, and has the best career Yards-per-Attempt in the color TV era.... throwing behind a patchwork OL of rookies and guys in new spots, throwing TO a collection of recent Home Depot employees (Robinson) and future ones (Ogletree) while his best WRs miss time with injury, not to mention broken ribs & punctured lungs. No GM in his right mind not sitting on the can't miss prospect of can't miss prospects gets rid of that guy.... no matter how crazy he drives you at times. Even if you try to discount the statistics completely, look within the division- Eli Manning is an INT machine... he's never seen an opposing corner he doesn't like. He's thrown two picks for every one Romo has thrown, has a career QB rating almost 20 points lower than Romo, and has driven NYG fans to the point of suicide with bad TO's.... and he's won a Super Bowl. Good GM, Good coaching, the right parts in place. Not a knock at you personally, Rick, but this is the thing with the unrealistic Cowboy fan and Tony Romo - in four games this year, two have been followed by his literally being THE talk of the league in the media - player of the week awards with the majority of fans falling all over themselves to extol his leadership and toughness, his heroic performances... the other two by fans running to the internet "GET RID OF THIS GUY - WE CAN'T WIN WITH HIM!!1!" It's all emotion, unrealistic expectation, and extreme thought - Odds are, like with everything, the truth lies well in the middle. Not every team has the absurd QB history of Dallas. MAYBE Green Bay. That's about. We're lucky, spoiled, and don't know what we have while we have it.

I think that's the key, right there in bold. Our history. Hutchinson. Carter. Henson. Testaverde. Leaf. Stoerner. Banks. Bledsoe. That's your revolving door between Aikman and Romo. That's what makes any reasonable Cowboy fan very, very reluctant to do anything rash. Getting an elite QB in today's NFL is one of the hardest, most uncertain things there is.... and I agree that a decent GM can win with Romo - teams win every day with much, much worse. Just as Romo's mistakes contributed to losses vs. NJY and DET, you don't win vs. SF or WAS without him. This thing is at 2-2... right where it deserves to be with a ridiculous collection of kids on the OL, a secondary made of papier mache, and a WR corps that defies comprehension. Bad second half today. Frustrating as hell. But odd multi-thread starting personal vendettas aside, getting Romo out of here is low on any competent GM's hit list.

http://www.aggieenergy.com/

Did Boise's amazing run help the WAC? Did TCU's help the Mountain West?..... or did both of those teams bail for greener pastures as fast as they could, leaving the same middling/dying non-AQ conference behind? Greenminer is right. Having half of the league consistently beating AQs is far better for the league as a whole than one team MAYBE getting ranked. And what's better than BOTH of those things?!? US winning the league, or having a chance to. FIU's loss puts our destiny back in our hands... and that's all that matters. Will it happen this year? Odds are stacked against it, sure... but odds were even MORE stacked against in in 2001. As long as we have a chance, I'll root for anything that helps us get there.

..... and 1 cup?!?

No way in hell this was remotely bad. Let's go win this damn thing, shall we?

Pain.

Yup. 41-14 in Ruston. Only loss LT had all year (2 ties). Strange we don't hear more about that one.