McTailGator

The guy from LC (Gary Laney), was offered the LSU Basketball beat by the Baton Rouge paper and her took the money and ran. BTW, I see where MCNeese's first (or long delayed) trip to Cardinal stadium wil be the last game (as it should be) of the 2011 season. I'm going to go out on a shoet limb here and say that there will not be an empty seat or peice of grass in the house, and parking will be a nightmare.

Talk about IGNORANCE! :

SECOND - Your 33,000 stadium size figure is TOTALLY WRONG. AND it was NEVER a rule EVER. You're almost correct in your statement. As I understand it, in the very early '80's, the NCAA split football into D1A and D1AA. The requirement to remain in D1A, the top level of competition now known as FBS, was to have a minimum 30,000 seat capacity stadium. Many programs, such as North Texas, chose not to meet the stadium requirement and simply dropped down to D1AA (NT's death wish). NT remained there for 10 years, and in 1994 made the push to move to D1A. The requirement then was to have the 30,000 seat stadium, which they did through expansion, and average 17,000 or so fans that season. I may be off on the attendance average requirement, but 17K seems about right. It was just a one year stadium/attendance requirement for programs wanting to compete in D1A. Oh I am totally right, because I have made it a point to know how it was and is done. The rule in the LATE 70's and early 80's were that IF any school averaged 17,000 TICKETS sold, OR if they had a 30,000 seat stadium, they could remain or mover OVER to I-A. Of the SLC teams AT THAT time, ONLY McNeese and USL actually had the 17,000 attendance to do it at the time, without selling any $1.00 tickets to no one. USL added 6,000 seats anyway aimply by renumbering their seats (ok if your butt is less than 12 inches wide) and left the SLC to "BE BIG TIME, and lose BIG TIME. They later realized that they didn't even have to add the few seat that they did. But they were so certain they would be the next LSU, they did it anyway. They only needed the extra seats twice in the next 23 years. Once in 1995 vs Texas A&M in Laugh-a-ette, and again in 2007 vs McNeese when they thought they had advanced enough to risk playing little ole McNeese. We beat them 38-17 and took a knee on the 12 ydl, with alomost 2 minutes to play. It wasn't that close. Note that Toledo (and another MAC school) do not have 30,000 seat stadiums, but like McNeese, they had the attendance to do it without the stadium expansion. McNeese just remained in the SLC (along with Lamar) to compete in a confeence within our budgetary means. It took LaTech a couple of years to add some seats before they could do it a couple of years later. Then the rule changed a litle, and you had to have BOTH the 30K stadium and the 17K tickets in the year prior to going I-A OR average 17K for 3 years even without the 30K stadium. That is when ULM added `10,000 horribly unsafe bleachers, and sold $1 tickets to dead people, and unborn children to get their ticket sales up. Troy did it without a 30K stadium. They had a 17,500 seat stadium at the tme in the mid 90's and just averaged 17K sold for 3 years to do it. They added 13,000 seats the year AFTER they went I-A. I remember being at a Troy game vs McNeese in Alabama, in the rain when McNeese fans outnumbered Troy fans, and the announced ticket sales were exactly 17,000. All the McNeese fans look at each other and burst into laughter because there was only about 3,000 of us, and we didn't think there were 5,000 people in the stadium. I would suspect that UNT did the same as Troy and ULM. The NEW rule does away with the 30K requirement, only to say that a school must now AVERAGE 15,000 a game over a 2 year period to go or remain FBS. The only catch is of the 15,000. ALL must be REAL rear ends that PAID FULL PRICE for their tickets AND the figures are subject to an independent audit, which the NCAA does not have the balls to do. This is proving to be very difficult for most of the SBC, MAC, and several in the WAC and even CUSA. Houston was even in trouble for a short period of time as was Rice and Tulane. Tulane fans expect to be outnumbered this year in the Dome when McNeese comes to town. Which is why they want us in the dome. We keep our ticket sales and a guaranteed fee.

How much for the land?

FIRST - Lamar WILL be D-I the day they start playing football. Just as the basketball and baseball teams are now. SECOND - Your 33,000 stadium size figure is TOTALLY WRONG. AND it was NEVER a rule EVER. The NCAA does not have a minimum size stadium capacity requirement. The requirement is simply that a team wanting to complete in the Fooball bowl SUBDIVISION (FBS) of Division I must average 15,000 in ACTUAL paid attendance per game over a 3 year period before being considered for FBS. FCS has no such requirement at this time. Only three of the 8 current SunBelt teams can make that 15K claim now (with a lot of help), and several CUSA schools are also in trouble as well.

FBS???? Must be FBS. Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Bowling = FBS. FCS doesn't need so many women's sports... As you add 63 football scholarships, you will have to fund a near like amount of womens scholarships as well. Recommend getting your head out of the polluted FBS clouds where the likes of La-Lafayette and Monroe float around all drunk on toxic air and just concentrate on a solid FCS team that can get a reputation for having a winning program for a few years. If you don't have 20 Million to spend on Athletics, FBS will just be a bad joke of a dream.

The average 17 or 18 year old kid is totally clueless on what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Other than playing X-Box or sports, and possible bagging bread and eggs at Market Basket, or flipping burgers at McDonalds, they have not yet experienced life or even know just what their parents do for a living and what they had to do to get there. MANY athletic departments encourage many of their student athletes to just take the Core Curriculum classes for the first year or two before declaring another major. This can be accomplished with a "General Studies" major. The kids have to take those Core Curriculum Classes anyway to earn any degree, so they are not wasting their time. This gives them more time to find their niche and determine what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Why is this important? Because if a kid declares a major and starts taking classes in that direction and then decides he would be miserable, then he could lose eligibility if he were to switch majors because he may have not earned enough hours toward his degree. Hurts the kid, and hurts the school that has invested in a scholarship. Many McNeese Athletes also claim General Studies for the same reason. Unless a kid comes in with two professional parents that know what college is all about, and the kid wants to be like Daddy and be an Engineer, or be like Mommy and be a Teacher or a Nurse, McNeese will try like heck to persuade a kid to hold off on declaring a real major (Not that GS is not real) for a year or two by declaring GS has his major and getting those Core Classes behind him. There are exceptions, especially if the kid is a a great student with strong parents.

Given the budget cuts to Louisiana colleges right now, I won't be all that supprised if UNO drops all sports all together. They do not have the budget or the support to support football.

From what I understand from talking to som MSU officials, Lamar and McNeese have already verbally agreed to play in 2011 in Lake Charles with McNeese returning to Beaumont in 2012. I wish it were 2010, but I think our schedule is just about full. No committments to a date can be made, which is why no one will talk about it in public.

That is a point I have tried to get TooLame supporters to see for years. If they want to use the; "I have to recruit smart kids as an excuse for losing" , than they all need to eith form their own Chess League with the likes of Rice, Tulane, Baylor, SMU, and who ever else that does not want to do what it takes to win, or just give up football as an NCAA sport all together. TCU has already made their statement, when they left CUSA, and Went to the MWC. I think SMU made a statement when they hired June Jones and spent all that money to upgrad their facilities. If Rice want to consider FCS, they should play McNeese for about 5 years in a row and see if they can compete with us on the field, and in Recruiting. My guess is, they might choose to drop football as an NCAA sport all together. Because they will not be able to find enough 4.0 GPA's that can run a 4.3 in the 40 and hit like a truck year after year.

Don't forget that LAMAR will be playing as a D-I team right from the start. Lamar fans need to realize that FCS is D-I. FBS and FCS of BOTH SUB-Divisions of Division I. The only difference being the number of FULL scholarships Lamar will be able to offer (85 for FBS and 63 for FCS). Lamar will be able to split those 63 scholarships among 85 players however. McNeese has a total of 83 to 85 football players that recieve some sort of NCAA recognised Grant in Aid. And due to our tradition, and history we can usually get a kid to come to McNeese for a partial before a kid will go to UL-Lafayette for a full ride. Those kids that are winners can stand the thought of playing for a bottom feediong FBS program that has never been to a bowl, and then losing 50 football games in 4 or 5 years. They know if they go to McNeese they win 50 to 60 in 4 or 5 years and have a shot at the playoffs every year and a possible Division I National Championship. THE ONLY D-I National Champion the NCAA recognises in Football. The BCS NC is NOT a NCAA Champion.

That's incorrect. Lamar would have to be FBS for that to happen. C-USA does not allow member schools to travel to FCS schools. That's another reason to go FBS. There's not too many FCS schools in this part of the country, so it limits who you can bring in for home games. ??? There are a total of 6 There are a total of 13 FCS schools within a 6 hour drive of Beaumont. There are a total of 12 schools within a 6 hour drive of Beaumont. And 5 of them (LSU, UT, T-A&M, Baylor, and TCU) would NEVER in a Million Years go to Beaumont,Tx. So I guess that would make it 13 to 7. Guy's McNeese has been doing this for QUITE a few years now, and times have changed since Lamar once played FB. So take it from us. Learn about The FCS of Division I, Embrace it, and Enjoy having FB back at Lamar. You guy's can be a great FCS program, but you must learn to be addicted to YOUR Cardinals. Regardless of who they are playing. That is where the vast majority of WAC, CUSA, and Slum Belch fans and programs go wrong, and that is why so many teams from those conferences have a VERY difficult time meeting the NCAA minimum requirement of 15,000 a game in paid attendance.

Hey now, I was banned from the last board. This board is run much more smoothly and there's some meaningful discussion. Sure, LU fans on here think I can be a pain in the tail, but every now and then, I provide some vital information that they may think is worth some value. LOL We McNeese fans are just used to your methods TT. (: Plus you have never disrespected us, and I totally understand your opinion of the BoobCats, particularly their students, who need their @$$es whipped by an adult, because it is apparent their daddy's were absent from their lives. (;

I'm on a friends PC right now to post this. Everytime I try to log into this site from my PC, I get an "Error" message, and a note that says; "Sorry McTailgator" You have been Banned from Posting on this site" I get the same notice, when I try to log on on another name or as a guest. So I tried deleting all my cookies, and all my temp. internet files, but nothing seems to work. I take it that I have not been banned, simply because I am able to get on on someone else's PC. (Hell if Texas Terror and UNLV can't get banned, I didn't think I posted anything to get me banned either.) (; Is it a problem on my end, or something with the hosting side? Thx. McT.

I tell you guys what... If any of you want to come over this year for a game or too, just let me know and I will make certain we prepare a little more food at the GeauxCowboys.com tailgate tent. We're well know for feeding our visiting fans and sharing some brew with them over the years. Ya'll are welcome any time. Just post here and let me know which games you want to come and see. I'm sure we can find some available seats in our section too. Come by the Friday evening before any game and start the tailgating with us. We typically have a band playing somewhere. Here is just a small peek of what tailgating at McNeese is like every week. We start Friday nights and usually go untill the wee hours of each Sunday morning after our Saturday night games.

DOC (McNeese72) is the official photographer of GeauxCowboys.com. He's a McNeese Grad. in 1972 (thus the name), and has a Dental Practice in Sulphur. He's not a professional Photographer, but I think he's probably as good as anyone. And yes he has an impressive amount of Camera equipment. It's his hobby and he's serious about it. He really enjoys it and you can look at his archive and see that he spends a lot of time at all McNeese sporting events.

I kind of like those Box suites on the ODU conceptual drawing... I think Lamar would do well by adding something like that in the North EZ, and and try to attach a new field house to it as well. Possibly by digging out the hills and attaching it to the M-Center and then building the Club Seats and Suites above the field level field house. That way you can just use Huggins for the visiting teams to dress in. That will keep the home team and the visiting team from having to share the same access point to the field, Anyway... JMHO.. sounds like a good idea to me. but thats a lot of money, and they won't do it. so the hills will most likely stay. but i'm starting to change my position on the vip boxes. i think they're a good idea. they will bring in money. IF we get a good coach. and IF we win. lol WINNING is indeed the key to ANY successful athletic program. Lake Charles is NOT a Basketball town. We live breath and sleep football. BUT we paked Burton Coliseum in 2002 when the played the Semi's and Finals of the SLC Basketball tourney in Lake Charles. We had a really good team that year. It was fun having 6,800 fans screaming in that ole Barn of an arena. I wish we could build us a new on campus Basketball Arena, but as long as we don't win more basketball games, what's the point.

McNeese72 has a few here from the Spring Game last week. Once you open the link scroll sown a little until you see the 3 pages of links he has there next to the photo of the guy running with the ball. [Hidden Content] Here is a link to the Turf Progress page. The last two links show some wide angle shots of the final product. The players simply love it. They got to practice on it once and then they held the annual spring game on it.[Hidden Content]

...Who would you guy's like to see Lamar play it's final regular season SLC game against once you begin conference play? Just wondering. Personally, I would like to see McNeese and Lamar save that game for the last regular season game to help re-build the old rivalry... We really haven't had a good Rivalry week Rival since Lamar and UL@L left the SLC in the 80's. We played Nichols for a lot of years, but it really was just another conference game for us. Northwestern was a bigger deal for our fans, but they already had a totum pole swapping game going every year vs SFA, and that is a big deal to those two schools. SHSU has TxSU, SLU now has Nichols which is a natural for them. Right now they have us playing UCA, but there is no good reason other than we are the only two schools not to have a natural rival like I think Lamar and McNeese has just simply because of our proximity to each other.

I'm sure Cardinal Stadium will look great once they clean it up, re-paint it, and rebuild the Press Box and Field House. I look forward to coming back to beaumont for a game again. We had a lot of fun there in the past. Cowboy fans are well known for how well we travel, Down Town Beaumont is gonna make a lot of money that weekend. We brought 11,000+ fans to watch our Pokes beat up on City College of Lafayette last September. Here's a Photo, they had to split us up to keep us from making their own fans look bad for not supporting their team. We even had a few hundred or so in the North endzone.

BEFORE (Are right after Rita) AFTER Nice shot from one of the private suites in the SkyRanch

Yea, The are pretty close in capacity too. McNeese never recounted after they added the new pres box. Officially we hold 17,410. But then they added the new Sky Ranch/Press Box, which holds around 500 on 4 decks. Unofficially, it will hold about 18,000 once they complete the new filed house in 2009, which will have about 100 seats in a new VIP lounge over looking the north endzone. I think the main difference in Cardinal Stadium and Cowboy Stadium is the angle of the grand stands, Cowboys stadium is a little steeper than Cardinal stadium. That is about it.

Almost done... Then Endzone Lettering is done on the McTurf project... Click HERE to see the McTurf Project Progress

They have made som great progress this week on the McTurf project... Click here and chose the last date to see the latest photo's

Here is an updated link to the McNeese Stadium enhancement construction progress web site. Click HERE to see Turf Progress from start to finish I'm sure Lamar's Stadium will soon include a new turf simular to this one too. Just thought I would share. Most of the turf is down, they just need to start stretching it out and gluing it together. The Spring Game is scheduled to be played on the new turf on April 24th. Here is what the finished product will look like: _________________ McNeese University 12 Time SLC Champs & Winner of 5 of the last 7 SLC Football Championships. 1976, 79, 80, 91, 93, 95, 97, 2001, 02, 03, 06, and 2007! All other SLC schools only have 11 combined.