PROOF POSITIVE that Skip Bertman's In-State Scheduling is STUPIDITY!

Quoted by Tiger Trey:

Part of our problem is that Arizona was incapable of fielding a competitive team this year. Even a mediocre Wildcat unit would have pulled up our SOS rank and allowed for a UL-M or LaTech on the schedule. Arizona has been a decent Pac-10 program until recently. I'm sure that our AD had this in mind when we agrred to schedule them. There is no way we could have known that would be much worse than god-awful this year.

true

 

I think the reason LSU played two in state teams this year is because Louisiana Tech was added to the schedule when Bowling Green backed out of a scheduled game. The original schedule was for LSU to play ULM this year and LA Tech next year. If the two MAC teams hadn't backed out LSU would have played Marshall and Bowling Green instead of Western Illinois and LA Tech. You can't blame Skip for that.

 

Actually, it was the ULM game that was added late.

 

Yes, correct. The ULM game was added late. After what happened with Virginia Tech, and the discovery that Arizona had a game before they were scheduled to play us, we decided to schedule a "tune-up" season opener before Arizona. Troy State was unwilling to accomodate us, so we cancelled with them and moved ULM up to 2003. Troy St. was pushed back to 2004.

Folks, the in-state games don't hurt our SOS any more than any out-of-state patsies would. Remember 2001? We had three OOC patsies visit Tiger Stadium, Tulane (3-8), Utah State (5-6) and a halfway decent Middle Tennessee State (8-3). Then in 2002, the Citadel was scheduled in a pinch. They would have hurt us very badly in SOS had we been in the national title hunt late in the year. Miami University was a decent opponent, but I am not in any mood to do business with the MAC after what Bowling Green and Marshall have done to us two straight years.

Keep in mind, our SOS is hurt mostly by replacing Marshall with Western Illinois and because Arizona imploded, not because of Louisiana Tech and ULM, who are no better or worse than the standard out-of-state patsies. And two years ago, La. Tech went 7-4 and won the WAC. They are on a downturn but have had considerable success in the last five years. Same for Tulane.

Perhaps ULL and ULM will soon drop to 1-AA and make the in-state scheduling easier. But as long as in-state opponents continue to bring higher attendance averages (average 3,400 in attendance over out-of-state OOC opponents) they will be on the schedule.

So TE, I assume you would be just fine with scheduling in-state teams if they were winning? No, because then you would say we run the risk of losing to them. It's a Catch 22. Your reasons for not wanting to play in-state opponents have nothing to do with their winning/losing ways and everything to do with wanting to stomp every other 1-A program in Louisiana out of existence because of some "perceived threat" to LSU. Lighten up, man! And I think Coach Bertman knows what he is doing. Sorry, TE, but you are wrong on this one, your arguments haven't a leg to stand on. We will see next year, if Tulane isn't called upon to replace Virginia Tech, how not having in-state opponents on the schedule effects our attendance and our bottom line.