Threatened? By ULL? That's hilarious. I don't think you honestly believe that drivel. ULL fans are the ones perpetuating a lie out of their own insecurity, yet LSU fans somehow have a character flaw when they correct them? Yeah, Ok. Again, "Assistant to the Regional Manager".
Thanks for proving my point. It's not the "people who go there" who are the problem with UL...or whatever it's called. If you go back and read you'll see the part of his post I responded to was not about students of... Rather, "what most people." Once again, what you THINK you see and what actually is are two different things. Follow along now, would ya.
Crap. I had a long reply typed up to this a couple of days ago and have no clue why it didn't post. I ain't retyping it. But I will say, it wasn't meant to read contradictory. It can be racial, but not racist. There was nothing stopping a black athlete from coming to LSU in the late 80's, early 90's if LSU offered. It's just a large quantity of black athletes in the state at the time did not grow up LSU fans because of the history you noted. Plus, at the time, LSU was still going through a racial transition that moved a little slower than say...FSU and Miami. Success had plenty to do with it as well, but that homestate pride didn't exist yet. It does now.
Interesting. LSU signed an awful lot of black Louisiana athletes in the 80's and 90's . . . just not many from New Orleans. Culturally, Louisiana is three states--North Louisiana, South Louisiana, and New Orleans. I think black athletes in north and south Louisiana came around a lot sooner than those in New Orleans. Why do you suppose that is?
Second largest school, second highest Carnegie rating, second largest number of academic programs... Yes, LSU feels threatened because UL can compete for funding, students, etc.
LSU doesn't feel particularly threatened by ULL, but they definitely want to maintain the qualitative and quantitative edge on them. Last year, when my department was threatened with massive budget cuts and possible elimination, some covert feelers were made by "another" university about acquiring us. LSU managed at the last minute to find funding for us, but we were told in no uncertain terms that they may not be able to fund us in the future, but we are forbidden to discuss transferring the unit elsewhere. We must either live or die an LSU unit, but another Louisiana university will not be allowed to acquire us.
