Arkstfan

No suprise there. ULM held us up for cash when we needed to move a game to play LSU.

ULM and ULL may come out of this very well. If LSU is expecting to make $3 million and pay UNT $500,000 they've got wiggle room in their budget to compensate them for their trouble.

I like the home/home series that Arkansas State has. Army and Oklahoma State (road 05, home 06), SMU (road 06 home 07), and Memphis (road 06, 08, home 07, 2010 or 2011). No world beaters, mostly regional or in the case of Army nationally recognized. But I hope we have good enough buyouts to protect us in the event of a cancellation.

In most game contracts there is no buyout if a game is cancelled as a result of an act of war, insurrection, civil disorder, national emergency, or natural disaster.

THIS JUST IN! UT Tyler has rocketed to the top of the Sun Belt expansion list because UNO's basketball team will be there.

If you didn't read it right we BOTH need to bone up on our reading comprehension skills because I read it the same way. Even if they weren't in classes the NCAA has the authority to waive elgibility rules in time of disaster.

According to posters on the CUSA board, Tulane football players will enroll at Tech and attend classes there. They will practice in Ruston and play their home games in Shreveport.

Maybe not after teams see what it takes to get there and what the facilities are like.

Tulane won't be out of CUSA. When they dropped basketball for two years in the point shaving scandal that was a required sport in the Metro and they let Tulane remain until basketball restarted. I don't know what Tulane will end up doing this year but they may re-open as early as January. If the dome is torn down they will move to Tad Gormley Stadium (think Fouts after renovations to make it a world class track facility) until a replacement is built. They will build a large stadium in New Orleans to host the Sugar Bowl. It may not be a dome but there will be a high caliber facility. The NFL may force the Saints to stay in place but they can't last there long because they weren't drawing well as it was. With the wake of the storm and flooding the population will be lower and the rebuild efforts will limit the disposable income.

It's not a "perfect" solution but wouldn't make more sense to have UNT and LSU play October 29 and move UNT-ULM to December 3? ULM doesn't have to move a conference game to make that happen. If UNT wins the conference it gives the same amount of lead time Memphis had for the New Orleans Bowl, six more days than Cincinnati had and seven more than USM had.

Bet part of the money for a new stadium comes from the NFL out of that money they've been saving to help build a new stadium in LA.

The Superdome had a three day supply of fuel for generators.

I don't think any level of government comes out of this looking good. Remember that part of the mayor's problem has been a lack of first responders. It has been reported that 1/3rd to 1/2 of the NOPD has "disappeared". It has been alleged that many of them tossed their uniforms and just left. I'm sure that a number of them will be the morgue when they start collecting bodies having died in the line. The evac plan was a cluster. New Orleans has hundreds of ruined school busses that could have been saved had they been loaded with those without transportation and taken further inland. Sure it wouldn't have been a huge dent if say 500 busses each with 40 people had left the city but that would have been 20,000 people not down in the mess. Those busses would be a resource today instead of insurance salvage. According to a CNN report the Federal government wanted to take over the evac on Friday before landfall and the state rejected the offer. According to the source (in the Louisiana government) the discussion from the state's side was more about who was going to be blamed for what was coming rather than the merits of the idea. There were complaints about the efforts to plug the levees but the helos were being diverted to rescues instead of concentrating on stopping the flooding. A huge failure in troop deployment wasn't the numbers so much as the focus. The 10,000 first on scene probably should have been used to secure landing zones at the hospitals so evac there could have been finished instead of leaving them all but cut-off. Unless there is a declaration of insurection regular US soldiers cannot be used for law enforcement (that's why we send the guard rather than regular soliders or reserves in time of disaster, they cannot arrest looters, rapists, etc but the guard can). An insurrection declaration was warranted as soon as the guard came under fire.

ULM hijacked ASU to move a game last year after the schedules were printed. We had to pay them $30,000 or so to get them to agree. As to ULM getting favors from UNT, expect to pay for the favor. Early in the talks to start the Belt UNT threatened to walk if ULM was part of the league. Some one mentioned ASU got a big pay day for Army. Not true. The guarantee basically covers our expenses, but they come to Jonesboro to start the 2006 season.

And the favor was returned shortly thereafter to clear the way for UNT/Troy to be televised.

We're not alone. The MAC started 0-10 against I-A. Only win was over I-AA Western Ill. The WAC started 0-4 against I-A. Only win was over I-AA Eastern Washington and San Jose trailed much of that game.

Well when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, I would wager it will be far cheaper for Tulane to not play. If they keep the team together they've got to travel, be housed, be fed, and those players who we hope are on a track to get a degree in five years will spend a year playing football likely without earning credits. Even paying the coaching staff it will still be cheaper to just forget it for this year and start practicing in the spring. They need to make the call NOW because others need time to adjust their schedules.

NW has a defensive end who was a starter at South Carolina last year who transferred in after getting in trouble.

I think it is a fairly safe bet that the Sugar will be in Baton Rouge.

Analyzing the situation. San Antonio. Very unlikely. For most of the league it increases the travel involved for fans. Same story for CUSA if an Eastern division team is in. Lacks the "feel good" of keeping the game in Louisiana. Another downside is playing a game that will draw 25,000 or so in a 65,000 seat facility. Houston. Same story as San Antonio. Baton Rouge. No way that CUSA or the SBC wants to step inside a 90,00 plus seat stadium. Lafayette. Proximity is good, won't find a more fun location of that size. League office is already there. If the bridge and highway issues aren't resolved around New Orleans it can be difficult to reach for schools coming in from the east. A crowd of 25,000 in a 30,000 seat stadium will look just fine. Shreveport. Stadium is larger than Cajun Field but a very intriguing possibility. 25,000 in a 49,000 seat stadium doesn't look too bad. In the new bowl market we have multiple bowls are being managed by single entities. We have a few cities with two games administered by one group. We have ESPN Regional Sports managing three different games. The I-Bowl is one of the strongest independent games left because of great community support. They've gone a couple years without a real title sponsor and still cough up over a million per team. The New Orleans Bowl by neccessity is run on a shoe-string through the GNOSF who contracts the Belt to do administrative duties. A long-term partnership between the I-Bowl and the "Louisiana Bowl" could be a plus for both seeking sponsorships and in negotiating TV. It would help the I-Bowl locally. The casinos hate when TV pushes the I-Bowl too close to New Year's Eve because they are full with or without the game. A game a little further removed from New Year's Eve makes it easier to get money out of the casinos because then it helps their dead period. Last year when the SEC came up short they were scrambling for a replacement team. Already tied to a bowl with the SBC and CUSA would have made it easy for them to "trade" UNT to the I-Bowl and to call up Troy. Easier venue to reach for most schools in CUSA and the SBC. I'd like to see that option explored.

Ethanol has held promise for 30 years and the advocates have always said "soon as gas goes up this is viable". Well it wasn't viable when gas went to 75 cents, $1, $1.50, or $2.00 and doubt it will be at $3.00. There two technologies available that can be ramped up to truly effective levels in a relatively short time. Hybrids. The gas motor makes electricity just like a locomotive. Some folks have shown that by adding some additional batteries to a hybrid and plugging them in at night that they can run around 40 miles before the gas engine kicks in. That covers the commute of most Americans. Bio-diesel. Only hitch right now is production. In the US we are using soybeans but the yield isn't great (an acre produces around 40 gallons). At that rate we could not totally covert to bio-diesel and meet all are needs nor produce any grain crops. Much greater potential from rapeseed, mustard, jatropha (not sure it grows in the US, they are using it some India), palm oil with the greatest theoretical yield coming from algae. Get the production ramped up and we can do great things either running it straight or blended. There is a problem for current vehicles. Bio-diesel is more of a solvent that regular diesel. So it will knock loose any gunk that is in the tank or fuel lines and send it straight into the engine. Not a wonderful property for an injection based fuel feed system and older vehicles burning conventional diesel will have a lot of deposits. It also gels more easily than conventional diesel and so is less suited to winter usage in the northern part of the country.

Lafayette is in good shape except for being loaded down with refugees. My hope is that a deal is cut to play in Shreveport and maybe make it a long-term deal (Louisiana Bowl?). The I-Bowl is one of the few well paying bowls that isn't relying on a big title sponsor, or administered with another bowl or administered by ESPN Regional Sports. Having the ability to jointly market two bowls to sponsors and TV will strengthen both bowls. Last year when the I-Bowl came up short they were scrambling. If they were hooked up with our bowl they could have easily pushed UNT up to play Iowa State and brought Troy over to play USM.

Most of the staff went to Jackson. I believe the commissioner went to Birmingham. They are now all setting up shop at ULL who is providing them with offices.

Hearing now that the bowl might go to Shreveport.

Heard today that Shreveport may end up hosting before its all said and done.