re: Will LSU ever schedule McNeese in football

2004, 2005 - 2 of the worst years in program history.....

Now, go look up more scores and post them for me.

You really want to get into past accomplishments?

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You really want to get into past accomplishments?

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Sure let's talk about number of National Championships?

Then let's talk about the last four playoff appearances?

There is no point in arguing with this jackass. There is a reason why ULM, ULL, Tech, and Tulane will play every other AA team, but not McNeese on a yearly basis.

The only reason ULL finally scheduled McNeese was because of McNeese's two bad years. That bit them in the arse.

Did you forget about...
2003 - McNeese 58 SLU 20 or
2006 - McNeese 34 SLU 13 or
2007 - McNeese 45 SLU 17

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Probably UL-Lafayette, simply because 1AA games don't count in the power ratings.

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I-AA FCS games do count in some power ratings and don't in others. Whether a school would benefit more in the power ratings component depends on the year, but history and the way the power ratings work suggest, I think, that most times a BCS league school would do better playing McNeese.

Sagarin ELO is an example of a power rating system that considers I-AA games and is part of the BCS system. Since Sagarin started reporting ELO ratings, McNeese has finished higher than ULL 4 times and ULL has finished higher than McNeese 3 times. If you go back 10 seasons and look at Sagarin's basic power rating, McNeese has finished higher than ULL 6 times and ULL higher than McNeese 4 times. There's no reason not to believe you'd get the same result with the ELO rating if it had been reported.

Some power systems ignore I-AA games. In that case, you're better off playing ANY I-AA than playing a I-A that's low in power ratings because the I-AA has no impact on your score while a low rated I-A depresses it.

When I looked into this a few years ago I found that one power rating system used in the BCS just assigns a value equivalent to the 70th ranked team in I-A to all I-AA games (or close to that, I'm going from memory but it was somewhere in the 70s and I think the low 70s). So, in that one, you're better off playing a I-AA than any I-A ranked below 70. And the highest Sagarin rating ULL has had over the past 10 years is 119. The highest ELO rating reported on Sagarin's site (past 7 years) is 106.

No guarantees. But I think that chances are notably better than even that, all other things being equal, a BCS league school would end up with a better score in the BCS power ratings component by virtue of scheduling McNeese than it would by virtue of scheduling ULL.

I'm a McNeese and FCS fan so I understand that I have a different perspective than people who are primarily fans of BCS league schools. I also understand that fans of school like LSU would rather see another BCS league school or one of the top non BCS FBS schools on the schedule than a FCS.

But I've never understood why they'd rather see some low level non-BCS FBS school on their schedule than a really top level FCS. To me, the question of how a really good FCS...a team from a program with a winning mentality...will do makes for a more interesting situation than a routine game against some bottom of the barrell FBS would.

Like the last time App State was down here. I listened to it on radio and watched it on the replay. It was interesting. No, LSU was never in danger of losing but the Moutaineers hung in there pretty darned well. The score was only 14-0 at halftime and was still that at the end of the third quarter. They weren't able to score but they were able to move the ball and keep LSU's offense off the field.

Put it this way: I didn't see LSU's 56-3 victory over North Texas the previous week but I have a hard time seeing how any football fan wouldn't think the App State game was more interesting.

Same thing in 2003 with I-AA playoff team Western Illinois vs. LSU's non BCS I-A opponents. The Western Illnois game was 13-0 at halftime and WIU actually scored to make it 13-7 in the third. The final was 35-7.

During the same season LSU led 21-0 over ULM at halftime and was up 42-0 before ULM scored and led Louisiana Tech 49-0 at halftime. The finals were 49-7 and 49-10.

For the life of me, I can't understand why any football fan wouldn't find a game in which a playoff caliber team from the lower subdivision hung in there pretty well for a while more interesting than total-start-to-finish blowouts over I-A/FBS pretenders.

Dude, I'm so tired of you talking about my school! The fact is it dosen't matter how good your football team is, money is what matters. Fans bring money. How many people does McNeese sit for a game? 2-3 hundred? Southern has more fans than that in the parking lot on the Thursday night before the Saturday scheduled game! That's the reason why LSU won't play yall. No fan support! Why would they schedule a beat down like that when they will have to struggle to sell McNeese tickets. That's why Southern is a more wanted matchup than McNeese ever will be. Everybody knows southern will bring 20-30,000 on every road trip. That's why McNeese wanted to play us in 2004 and 2005 because they knew in 2005 we were bringing the whole North side of baton rouge to lake charles and they were going to finally make some money. Who cares about the game! That's why Tulane begged us to play them in 2002, that's why we are playing the Houston Cougars this season, and that's why we are playing UL Lafayette in 2009.