re: Tulane hires Lance Guidry as new Defensive Coordinator

quote:

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Nicholls and Southeastern becoming considerably better programs recently could also have something to do with McNeese’s demise

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In recent years, but I was referring to the drop off from the 90s until today. McNeese was in playoffs nearly every year and played in a Semi-Final and two Finals in a 7 year period (1995-2002). IMO, the changing landscape of college football had more to do with it than anything.

In that timeframe, there wasn't a ton of difference between McNeese and what we would call today a Group of 5 school. McNeese could win and instate recruiting battle against a Tulane, La Tech, or ULL. Due to the facility upgrades these schools have been able to make with the money that started rolling in the past 20 years, McNeese (or any other FCS school for that matter) is not winning that recruiting battle today. Facility wise, the gap between a G5 program and FCS is now huge. Bowl games were still kinda cool in those days too, but there were only 18 of them. The FCS playoffs could be an attractive pitch as opposed to going somewhere where the likelihood of that school going to bowl was very slim.

Another is transfers. In the 90s and early 00s, it was common for a players to transfer all the way down to I-AA so they could play immediately. I can remember transfers from LSU and Arkansas at McNeese. Once the NCAA approved immediate playing time for grad transfers, this really slowed down kids transferring all the way down to FCS. Today's rules (everyone gets a one time transfer) effectively killed it.