The Cajuns are one of ten teams to make a bowl game 8 years in a row. Just 15 years ago, we just wanted to make one.
With that said, more bowls are being played. I’m good with celebrating consecutive bowl appearances, but does that also imply celebrating 6-6 seasons?
Discuss.
Now you see why I preach that SBC Championships are far more important to this program than bowl games. Not only do we accept being average, we celebrate and even reward it.
To achieve more, you must first demand more.
Just being Bowl eligible means nothing.
5 FBS wins plus an FCS win gets you a Bowl game. We are a LOSER in FBS games in the worst Division of FBS.
What is there to celebrate?
I get what you are saying, but at the same time, Cajuns have made it to 5 of 8 SBC Championship games (including 2020 in that number, even though game was not played due to Coastal running). Sure, we have won one (two really, cause Coastal), but Cajuns are competing for SBC Championships.
Sure, being bowl eligible for one year means nothing. But showing that the program is one of 10 teams to have made it for 8 consecutive years does mean something.
When you look at the list of the few programs on the current streak, it does say something positive about the state of the program.
I wouldnt say we are celebrating being bowl eligible, but acknowledging that we are bowl bound for the 8th straight year.
I think the way we’re finished deserves some celebration. Had we limped in losing the last 4 would be a different thing.
3 of the times we have missed the title game have come in last 4 years. I’m not saying we have to go to the title game every year but we need to compete to go to it. Our current regime has only been competitive in 1 of their 4 years.
I don’t think bowls should be celebrated. It is the bare minimum of where we should be as a program. Great that we are in such small company but would you rather our 8 year run or Tulanes? They haven’t been to a bowl every year but have been more successful.
We had our Tulane run from 2019-2021.
In our run we didn’t beat 4 P5s. 1 being in the cotton bowl against the #10 team in country.
I know that. Wouldve been nice to have that opportunity in 2021 to play a game like the cotton Bowl.
In the end both 8 year runs look very similar but the quality of teams Tulane beat is on a different level than us.
Wont dispute that.
The SBCW is the up there as one of the weakest and poorest divisions in CFB. In that context, winning our division should be the barometer. If we cannot fund our FB program at an amount that has us atop the SBCW, then we should not have expectations to win the west yearly.
Considering where we rank as a program in athletic budget and NIL money I’d say 8 straight bowls should be celebrated. We all want to win 10 games every year. But when that happens we get gutted by the portal and don’t have resources to back fill with the same talent.
We can complain about coaching decisions and lack of talent evaluation. But every school in the country deals with those problems as well.
College is just a worse example of MLB now. One roster costs 300mil competing against rosters with 30mil.
Stop losing to the EMUs of the world and I’ll listen to arguments about NIL and athletic budgets.
I agree but don’t downplay how good that Brock Purdy led Iowa State team was that we beat 31-14 in their house. They finished the season ranked #7 in the CFP rankings (#10 AP).
I’ve always been of the opinion that celebrating these “little victories” and silver linings does more damage to the program than actually being sub-500 and missing the bowls entirely..
Having BAD seasons might actually put some pressure on the admin to do something to change it.. Instead Maggard and Co will pack a charter bus full of friends and a handful of donors to sit in a luxury suite at whatever shitty bowl game we end up in, and then all offseason they’ll try to drum up fan support by advertising how we’re going to “keep the bowl game streak alive! Magic number is 6!”
Not winning the Sunbelt West can ONLY be seen as mediocrity if you take yourself seriously as a program.
We did thoroughly handle a team that won the Big 12 and won a NY6 bowl. You’re not wrong about the 4 P5 wins and Tulane won a NY6. But quality counts. Beating mediocre Duke and Northwestern inflates that record and is not overly impressive. That’s like us beating Wake last year.
To be fair to clutch, Duke is playing in the Acc champ game, how idk.