I'm going to agree with you. I'd rather three patsies and ONE mid-level school as long as the SEC is up. Pride as an LSU fan is more important to me than what kind of game I get for my money, and endangering a season by adding a fifth, sixth, or even SEVENTH ranked team to the schedule just for the sake of it is foolish and verging on arrogant. For instance, if we had a schedule with mid-to-upper echelon teams THIS year, we may very well be 4-3 or 3-4 right now. If you don't want to see the Tulanes of the world get blown out, you can almost always sell your scrub tickets. They make nice gifts, too. :hihi:
Your logic does not hold up to reality, hence only 70K in the stands vs Tulane. Plenty of people couldn't give their tickets away to that game. Troy may be even worse. When you factor in the revenue loss in concessions alone, it shows they have to make changes.
Ga Tech, FSU, UNC, Virginia, NC State, etc. There's a bunch of intriguing matchups to be had from the ACC. Most of those teams still have the name recognition we'd need but are of course very beatable.
If LSU were undefeated or even sitting at one loss, there would have been more people there for Tulane. Conversely, if LSU were a three or four-loss team right now due to a harder schedule with, let's say, Texas Tech coming to town...I dare say the stands would be quite as empty as Tulane was. Losses hurt revenue more than rent-a-wins. A couple of less-than-desirable seasons and season ticket holders start to jump ship. You know this to be true as we have seen it happen. TAF donations would suffer terribly. Student enrollment would decline due to lack of national exposure, which is not good for the university as a whole. Recruiting quality would decline and we'd get sucked back into an all-too-familiar cycle of mediocrity and before you'd even know it happened, we'd be BEGGING for patsies just to scrape out a winning season. It's a fine line to walk.
When was the last time LSU got dominated twice in the regular season under Miles? We both know that a harder schedule THIS year with THIS team can only mean more losses.
But you want one thing constant, while changing another. Points given up by the defense not withstanding, Miles has given up two losses each year, and has not lost to an OOC foe. The argument against a team better than Troy or North Texas just doesn't add up to me. It took awhile to win a couple of SEC, and awhile longer to win a couple of NC. Like it or not, LSU is now considered a national power, and the recruiting implications that go along with it. Every year, teams like USC, Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St get blasted for their schedules. USC is forced to to do it, but many other teams don't even try. Tenn, Auburn, Arkansas, and Georgia are changing that. We are too by looking at our future scheduling. Price of doing business and big tv contracts.
I absolutely like it! In fact, I love it! But making our schedule harder is not the way to continue the national prowess. It can backfire just as easily as it can help us. Seeing as how we've done pretty well as things have been, I see no need to add the extra risk. The scenrio I outlined above is a worst-case deal. And my opinion, for what it's worth, is that it's entirely possible. It's just not something I want to see.
That is an assumption. No? Like last year? Who got us the last push? Middle Tenn St, Tulane, La Tech, or Va Tech? Change is already coming(sorry to steal from Obama). Look at our future schedule of Washington('09 and '12), ASU('15). That doesn't count the other mid-high level schools we have unsuccessfully tried to schedule either. Plenty of boosters are complaining about it, and when our scheduling keeps us out of a championship, the pressure will really be on. I see the point behind revenues and rent a wins, but that argument is becoming increasingly thin. I think we paid App St over $700k last year! A Div II team! How does that help our bottom line? The only thing that kept that from being a total loser was tv interest due to a Michigan upset the previous year. 99 times out of a hundred, that game doesn't get picked up. But these schools are getting better and demanding more $$ regardless of tv coverage. Eventually the pros will no longer outweigh the cons.
It would make sense to play a D-1 school in TX..... (UT, ATM, RICE, Houston, TTech) Have a home-home series. GREAT for recruiting in TX and the travel from TX to BR isn't that bad. ATM/UT both Travel well. I have to say that the TTech game last Sat night was great. That crowd kinda was like a "Death Valley Starter Kit".... No more Nort Texas please! :geauxtige:geauxtige :geauxtige:geauxtige
