What moron decided that Tulane should leave the SEC in 1966?

More Sports Board.


Uh ... Just joking, Chicken. Lol

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I was a junior in high school then and as I recall, it was a combination of professor revolt for more emphasis on academics, the procession of losing seasons, and the desire to be associated with the great so called intellectual type of university. The largest reason was the realization that since the demise of single platoon football where players played offense and defense, you would need to recruit more athletes.

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The biggest reason was that the other SEC schools started spending more and more money on their football programs and coaches. The mid 60s was the real beginning of the hippie generation and the violence on the field wasn't favorably viewed upon by the "educated elite".

Tulane thought of themselves as the "Harvard of the South" and they shouldn't try to increase spending that was needed to stay competitive with the big boys in the conference. The professors at the university seized the opportunity to gather student support to down-size the athletic program and redirect money to academics. Last, but not least, Tulane thought they had a national following and that they could survive as an independent...which they did for a few years.

It was for competitive reasons. There was nothing like now for tv contracts and bowl games. The NCAA controlled all tv contracts.

They thought that by beign an independent they could schedule teams more similar to themselves and win more games and get more attendance.

You have to remember that at that time there were a lot of independents. Miami, Penn State, WVA, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, VA Tech, Pitt, ND, Army, Navy, Louisville and others were independents and doing fine. It was at that time a viable option.

The problem was not leaving the SEC as much as not spending money on football in the 1970s and 1980s and failing to see the landscape change after the NCAA lost control of tv contracts and the demise of the College Football Association contracts.

Miami could have been like Tulane, but they had a growing state and they decided in the 1980s to invest in Football.

Hell Tulane could be in the ACC right now if they would have decided to emphasize Football in the 1970s and 80s. Tulane's present state has less to do with 1965 and more to do with 1985.

Are most Tulane students/alums LSU t-shirt fans, or do they loathe LSU the way that Gaylor students and grads loathe A&M?

Some of our smaller Texas schools are filled with UT and A&M shirts all over campus (Texas State, Sam Houston, etc)...and I'd guess that ULALA and La Tech have a lot of closet LSU fans..but is the same true for Tulane?

Those were different times, but Auburn and UGA continued to play GT for a long time. Remember Georgia Tech left the SEC in 1963... Georgia Tech was independent until joining the ACC in 1979.

This (Auburn) rivalry lost some luster when the Georgia Tech Athletics discarded its membership in the Southeastern Conference in 1963 to become an independent institute and also to focus more on the academics of technology. However, the Yellow Jackets continued their annual series of football games with the Auburn Tigers through 1987,and with the University of Georgia though the present day.

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Some of our smaller Texas schools are filled with UT and A&M shirts all over campus (Texas State, Sam Houston, etc)...and I'd guess that ULALA and La Tech have a lot of closet LSU fans..but is the same true for Tulane?

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I would say no. Tulanes gets a much higher precentage of students from out of state and LA kids that go to Tulane tend to not be big LSU fans to start with or stop being LSU fans once they go to Tulane.

Exactly. A large majority of Tulane's student body come from the NE region, and college football isn't a top priority for them. The hardcore, old time Tulane alum and fans though, by and large, despise LSU. At least in my opinion. There is still a level of "we are the educated elite, you are a football school". But if you really want to know about the Tulane hate for LSU, go read about the baseball games between the two that occurred over a period of a few years in the mid 2000's.

But whats funny is that UT folks see themselves as the LSU of Texas, and see the other Texas schools as the La Techs and ULALA's of Texas.

They simply fail to understand why many Texans do not root for them against OU and when they are in a big Bowl game or in the National Championship.

Aggies on the other hand assume that rival schools root against us, and we embrace it.

even though i was on the scene at that time (in high school) i don't recall the specifics but the weenies flirted with de-emphasizing football more than once and prided themselves as the anti-sports movement leader in La. and yes, we took the mature road and continued to play them even though they soaked our fans every other year by required us to buy game packages in order to get a ticket to see lsu/tulane play. the texas schools, not just tejas universidad, are refusing to schedule a&m in all sports, not just football. they are basically contending a&m isn't part of texas anymore. a&m violated some sort of tejas "code" and so they rationalize their behavior as justified as opposed to childish.

Different times back then, it wasn't all about athletics and college sports were not the moneymaking behemoths they are today.

I'm sure Tulane loved Huey Long and the support he showered on LSU athletics.

Tulane's move was purely academic I would imagine since most schools and programs in the south were a lot different academic wise than tulane strived to be.