Cajuns to C-USA?

Harry · January 21, 2015

With the uncertainty surrounding the University of Alabama-Birminghams future with Conference-USA, it may be time for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns athletic department to consider leaving the Sun Belt Conference.

C-USA requires all of its members to carry football for full membership, but following the 2014 season UAB dropped football. UAB officials cited financial issues as the reason to end their football program, which began in 1991.

With the addition of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte), C-USA will have 13 football playing members for its 2015 season. They havent officially announced they are looking for a replacement for UAB, but having even-numbered divisions could be a future goal.

The Cajuns would be a viable option for C-USA if they consider adding schools. The Cajuns football program is coming off a fourth straight R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl win. This makes them the only school in the history of the NCAA to win the same bowl four straight years.

In comparison to C-USA schools, the Cajuns would have had the fourth-best average attendance record in football with 25,775. Under current head coach Mark Hudspeth, the Cajuns are 8-3 versus current C-USA schools.

Read more: http://thevermilion.com/?p=3100

untcampbell · January 21, 2015

Would immediately become my favorite conference road trip.

GMG

SilverEagle · January 21, 2015

Sounds like a no-brainer call to me. Plus I agree with UNTCampbell about the road trip.

chrisfisher · January 21, 2015

Only if they drop Lafayette from their name. University of Louisiana.

GTWT · January 21, 2015

Sure. Let ULL, Ark St, & Troy in cUSA. Change the cfonference name to Sun Belt II. Move the conference championship game to New Orleans. Jesus wept.

Rudy · January 21, 2015

If we can't get a MAC team, then I'd say this would be the next best replacement.

NT91 · January 21, 2015

Texas St

oldguystudent · January 21, 2015

That article reads like a sales pitch. I'd be super down with LaLa coming to CUSA. They are absolutely my number 1 choice, but right now, we may as well speculate who the next basketball coach will be. We'll have about as accurate predictions on that as we will on what, if anything, CUSA does with its membership.

wardly · January 21, 2015

Any idea on whether La. Tech would block ULL admittance? If not,lets just go to 16, add A-State and Ga. So. and be done with it.

untjim1995 · January 21, 2015

Any idea on whether La. Tech would block ULL admittance? If not,lets just go to 16, add A-State and Ga. So. and be done with it.

I like this a lot.

I wouldn't mind Texas State, but they won't get in with UTSA being in the conference already and the eastern CUSA schools would balk at another Texas school being in the league. But ULL is a perfect replacement to UAB (and Tulane for that matter). Arkansas State gets you some in-roads in Little Rock and Memphis. Georgia Southern would get you Savannah for a nice destination city. You get three good programs, too.

This is a solid G5 conference--and works well until realignment forces schools to join conferences that are more travel-friendly.

oldguystudent · January 21, 2015

Six hours driving with kickass tailgating full of beer, delicious blackened god knows what with a side of gumbo full of even more delicious amphibians, dancing in the parking lot, and beer in the stadium vs seven hours driving and, what. I know nothing of Arkie State except that while driving through Little Rock en route to Memphis last month I noticed lots of signs that read, "Dry counties ahead!"

Sell me on going to Jonesboro vs. Lafayette, which we already know is a kickass destination.

flyonthewall ain't lyin'. I'm all about the beer and the food. Don't care about one football program intrinsically put up against another football program. Those things will wax and wane, but the beer and the food tend to remain come hell, highwater, or Karl Benson drunk dialing us.

Edit:

Craighead County is Arkansas's 58th county, formed on February 19, 1859, and named for state Senator Thomas Craighead. It is one of several dry counties within the state of Arkansas, in which the sale of alcoholic beverages is largely prohibited.

Sooo....yeahhhh...no.

Edited January 21, 2015 by oldguystudent

MeanGreenTexan · January 21, 2015

The Cajuns should be #1 on the "fall-back" list and nothing more. We know they'd jump in an instant.

In the meantime, if Banowsky is even looking, shoot higher.

Eagle1855 · January 21, 2015

Texas St

I'm with you.

But U-La-La is fine, too. Easy drive from Houston. Best regional cuisine in the conference.

Daddy Dumpsalot · January 21, 2015

With the uncertainty surrounding the University of Alabama-Birminghams future with Conference-USA, it may be time for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns athletic department to consider leaving the Sun Belt Conference.
C-USA requires all of its members to carry football for full membership, but following the 2014 season UAB dropped football. UAB officials cited financial issues as the reason to end their football program, which began in 1991.
With the addition of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte), C-USA will have 13 football playing members for its 2015 season. They havent officially announced they are looking for a replacement for UAB, but having even-numbered divisions could be a future goal.
The Cajuns would be a viable option for C-USA if they consider adding schools. The Cajuns football program is coming off a fourth straight R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl win. This makes them the only school in the history of the NCAA to win the same bowl four straight years.
In comparison to C-USA schools, the Cajuns would have had the fourth-best average attendance record in football with 25,775. Under current head coach Mark Hudspeth, the Cajuns are 8-3 versus current C-USA schools.
Read more: http://thevermilion.com/?p=3100

Gosh I hope not. This conference keeps getting worse.

greenjoe · January 21, 2015

I've got nothing against LaLa, but I remember all the moaning and gnashing of teeth we all went through trying to get out of the Sun Belt. Now it seems, we're doing everything we can to "get the band back together" and call the Sun Belt CUSA.

CUSA needs a team from a conference other than the Sun Belt if we are to maintain any distance from our old neighborhood.

GO MEAN GREEN

SilverEagle · January 21, 2015

Six hours driving with kickass tailgating full of beer, delicious blackened god knows what with a side of gumbo full of even more delicious amphibians, dancing in the parking lot, and beer in the stadium vs seven hours driving and, what. I know nothing of Arkie State except that while driving through Little Rock en route to Memphis last month I noticed lots of signs that read, "Dry counties ahead!"

Sell me on going to Jonesboro vs. Lafayette, which we already know is a kickass destination.

flyonthewall ain't lyin'. I'm all about the beer and the food. Don't care about one football program intrinsically put up against another football program. Those things will wax and wane, but the beer and the food tend to remain come hell, highwater, or Karl Benson drunk dialing us.

One of the best descriptions of Cajun food I've ever heard. So as they say down there........"laissez les bon tempos roulez".

SilverEagle · January 21, 2015

I've got nothing against LaLa, but I remember all the moaning and gnashing of teeth we all went through trying to get out of the Sun Belt. Now it seems, we're doing everything we can to "get the band back together" and call the Sun Belt CUSA.

CUSA needs a team from a conference other than the Sun Belt if we are to maintain any distance from our old neighborhood.

GO MEAN GREEN

...such as.

greenjoe · January 21, 2015

Ohio State

NM Green · January 21, 2015

BYU football only keep UAB basketball. BYU salivates at G5 domination while penetrating the markets on west coast for basketball and the south for football. San Antonio down to Miami fall San Francisco to San diego back to Provo for full circle. No competing with Boise and no step back into MwC. We have an opening.

GMG

untjim1995 · January 21, 2015

I've got nothing against LaLa, but I remember all the moaning and gnashing of teeth we all went through trying to get out of the Sun Belt. Now it seems, we're doing everything we can to "get the band back together" and call the Sun Belt CUSA.

CUSA needs a team from a conference other than the Sun Belt if we are to maintain any distance from our old neighborhood.

GO MEAN GREEN

THe way I look at it is that you have taken the bigger and better profile SBC teams and meshed them with the small market CUSA schools who the AAC won't take. ULL certainly deserves to be in more than both of the F_Us--one would be fine, but having two is like having UTSA and Texas State in the same conference.

For those that hated the Sun Belt Conference, we got a better situation than we had with them even if Tulsa and Tulane hoped up to the AAC ASAP. Just by virtue of playing UTEP, Rice, La Tech, and Southern Miss, we improved things greatly, not to mention UTSA...

Eagle1855 · January 21, 2015

Might be worth asking A&M if they want to help bolster up the West. Although they haven't really even competed for a title in the post WWII era, they do bring a strong fanbase to the table. Worst they can say is "no."