University of New Orleans & D3-D1

[Tacttm1]

Yeah, but it is a Tulane game!!

[Ralph Turner]

Yeah, but it is a Tulane game!!

Tulane envy?

The same Green Wave that considered moving to D-III about 3 7 years ago?

http://feedback.tulane.edu/june07.shtml

Or here in 2003?

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/hschein/www/readings/athletics/Tulane2.htm


Correction -- Hat tip to Ron Boerger...

[David Collinge]

Or in 2003?

Ugh, don't get me started on that one again!

[Ron Boerger]

FYI, Ralph, your "June07" link takes you to comments made June 7, 2003.   

And I think Tacttm1 was saying that since it's Tulane, it might as well be D3.   

[Slidell]

I think it was more to see how the Tulane SID and media relations department works with the local New Orleans media on game day. 

While the scope of the program certainly won't be near that of Tulane, they will be dealing with (and wanting coverage from) the same media outlets in New Orleans.

The comparison with La College probably makes sense on the surface.  But I'm not sure of the extent of media coverage of LC football in central Louisiana - certainly the Alexandria paper, a local radio station and a television station or two.

At least initially, despite being D-III, the hope is that UNO football is a decent enough story to be covered by all of the local news stations (radio and TV) in the New Orleans market, the Times Picayune and a number of much smaller localized papers.

So I don't think it was such a bad idea to go see how Tulane runs its press box.  And I think that's all this was.

The tweet was a tease to build interest.

[Ralph Turner]

I think it was more to see how the Tulane SID and media relations department works with the local New Orleans media on game day. 

While the scope of the program certainly won't be near that of Tulane, they will be dealing with (and wanting coverage from) the same media outlets in New Orleans.

The comparison with La College probably makes sense on the surface.  But I'm not sure of the extent of media coverage of LC football in central Louisiana - certainly the Alexandria paper, a local radio station and a television station or two.

At least initially, despite being D-III, the hope is that UNO football is a decent enough story to be covered by all of the local news stations (radio and TV) in the New Orleans market, the Times Picayune and a number of much smaller localized papers.

So I don't think it was such a bad idea to go see how Tulane runs its press box.  And I think that's all this was.

The tweet was a tease to build interest.

In Louisiana/at UNO, the key will be to get game stories with the names of local players to the small papers.

Town Talk in Alexandria/Pineville is a very good local paper.  They do a good job for LC.

[Ron Boerger]

Ralph is right.  It is a rare media outlet in the big city that will cover a D3 school.   Local high schools will usually get more coverage than non-scholarship college sports.

Birmingham-Southern has seen their coverage drop off the face of the earth since going to D3.  Trinity, which never got much in San Antonio (even when they were consistently a top ten team), got less last year when D2 Incarnate Word started their football team and gets even less now that Larry Coker has shown up to run a Division I program at UT San Antonio ... starting NEXT year. 

New Orleans is a different enough sort of town that you may be the exception to the rule - let's hope!

[Tacttm1]

1)  I was just making an anti-Tulane comment!!   in good humor of course.

2)  UNO had to fight to get more than a blurb of coverage during D1 days so I don't thenk the future will be much different after the initial hoopla.

They don't even publish local players who get nominated for awards, watch lists, POTW, etc from other than D1, with very few exceptions.

[Slidell]

The extent of the media coverage is the big unknown.  I think that is part of what was behind the UNO guys sitting in on the Tulane pressbox.

As Tacttm1 pointed out, UNO has always struggled for media coverage.  There is a feeling that, despite the drop to D-III, adding football will be enough of a "story" to warrant some coverage.

Now, will it be a small little paragraph in the Picayune's "State Wrap-Up" section after every game (LC gets that much)?  Or will they provide some in-depth coverage somewhere in between the state wrap-up and the extensive coverage that LSU and Tulane get?

I think most UNO fans expect it to be closer to nothing than to the coverage that LSU and Tulane get.  But a little bit more (game previews, game accounts, stats and a pic or two) would be nice.

The sports director at the local ABC affiliate has always been a "friend of UNO" and has consistently provided the best coverage.  Will that continue for a D-III program?

A lot of questions.  But also a lot of opportunities.  I think UNO is doing the smart thing by trying to get out in front of that.

[Ralph Turner]

As I read the Shreveport papers, I thought that LSU coverage dramatically overshadowed Centenary's, even in CC's home town.

[Just Bill]

The trick that clever D-III schools grasp and less clever D-III schools don't, is that you need to act as your own media service.  Your website needs to be a newspaper, TV station, radio, and social networking site all rolled into one.  Of course, you still pursue traditional media coverage, but you consider their coverage to be a bonus which drives traffic back to your site and not the ultimate goal.

I've seen many D-III schools bang their head against the wall for years trying to get mainstream media coverage that they will never get.  The schools that really succeed in this area are the ones that deliver the content their fans want directly to them.

[Slidell]

As I read the Shreveport papers, I thought that LSU coverage dramatically overshadowed Centenary's, even in CC's home town.

LSU coverage overshadows both Tulane and UNO in the Picayune.  Heck, there were times when LSU coverage seemed to overshadow the Saints!  (Pre-Lombardi trophy days  )

[Slidell]

UNO's club team opened its season with a 39-20 victory over South Alabama's club team in front of 2,639 fans at Pan American Stadium in New Orleans.

Great crowd and a fun game.

It's assumed that next year's inaugural D-III squad will be made up of many of these players.

[Tacttm1]

UNO's Chancellor Tim Ryan was fired today!!

Now the athletic fans (some) are clammoring for a recision of the move to D3 and a rapid transition back to D1.

My understanding is that the NCAA wouldn't look to kindly on a University dropping from a conference, petitioning for transition to D3 and then saying 'nevermind' and returning to the prior situation.  I beleive this to hold even if the financial woes confronting the UNO athletic department were somehow solved.

Can any of the more experienced and knowledgeable members tell me if that has ever happened before and what your opinion is on this?

[hickory_cornhusker]

Winston-Salem State did this just recently but that was a move from Division II to Division I and they realized that the finances just weren't there. With a lot of Division I not liking teams like NJIT and Houston Baptist joining their ranks because of the supposed (and sometimes actual) inferority of the programs the NCAA was willing to let Winston-Salem State go back to Division II. I don't know how this situation would pan out if New Orleans tries to go back to Division I.

If New Orleans does return to Division I what happens to their football team? The athletic department down there has been trumpetting the start of intercollegiate football for the past few weeks. If they were moving to Division III for financial reasons then there is no way they could support a Division I football team along with the rest of their programs. Even if it did join the non-scholarship Pioneer League.