re: More about Roy King's dismissal - It was ALWAYS about the money

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Why does this matter to the average fan? Some have noted that the band's quality has gone down a bit in recent years. While Tiger Band is still considered to be among the upper echelon of college marching bands, it's worth noting that Tiger Band's scholarship budget was basically cut in half around the time Roy took over. In particular, it became more difficult to recruit good musicians from out of state. (Imagine what an analogous reduction in scholarship aid would mean for the quality of the football team.) That problem will be greatly exacerbated in the future if this is allowed to stand, and you will definitely notice a difference in the quality of the band, if not this year, then very soon.

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The "Quality" or "Entertainment Value" of GBFTL half-time shows has little to do with who's on scholarship or how much the "Stipends/Service Awards" are. It's 100% on the Directors and the "Quality" of their Show Designs. The "Quality" of halftime shows HAD greatly declined under King.

Of course, you have to have "Quality Athletes" on the field or it's all for nothing. It requires a totally different type of "Musician" for Marching Band than it does for all the Symphonic Bands.

It's like comparing "Football" athletes to those of "Golf."

I agree with Talley. The band is "Under Worked." You can't produce entertaining shows if you only practice 4 days a week for an hour and a half. Has to be M-F for a minimum of 2 hours, plus the Saturday practice for "Cleaning."

Myself and most Tiger Band Alums wouldn't mind seeing the entire Tiger Band Organization totally removed from any School of Music control and put under LSU Athletic Department control 100%.

Put everybody on "Athletic Scholarships" just like all the athletic teams. Hire an experienced and talented Band Director, pay them a great salary, transition to all "Brass and Percussion" (Like Ohio State and other Marching Band's) increase practice time, recruit great high school marching band brass players/drummers and you're ready to go.

It would be just like any sport at LSU.

This can and should be done if you have the right Director and Staff in place. You'd have to hire a really talented and experienced Director (Just like the Football coach) and let him hire a great Staff. (Just like in Football) It WOULD work and there would be an immediate and noticible improvement in the quality of the half-time shows, because their only job would be to produce creative, imaginative and entertaining half-time shows that people would WANT to watch!.............