(03-28-2014 07:56 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  Louisiana-Lafayette booted from the Southland when the SLC was reclassified FBS. Cast around as an indy finally landing in the Big West and passed by their indy neighbors for the new C-USA. Sitting between Tulane and Houston... not a surprise.

What was the story here? We were booted from the Southland?

While I don't recall the circumstances of the Cajuns leaving the Southland, I do recall that when we went FBS, the AD or President of McNeese said something to the effect, "some schools are happy to compete at the bottom of their division (meaning the Cajuns) while others (meaning McNeese) will compete at the top of theirs".

Did McNeese ever leave the Southland? I don't think so. I thought the Southland was always FCS.

McNeese never left, but they opted to go D-IAA.

The Southland Conference was D-IA until 1982 along with several other current FCS conferences (Ivy League, Missouri Valley, and some others that I don't remember off the top of my head). Those conferences were forced down to D-IAA because member universities didn't meet the attendance requirements...a lot more stringent requirements than they are now. The Southland Conference was actually the host conference for the Independence Bowl in its early years. That went away with the conference force down.

The Ragin' Cajuns and McNeese met the requirements. The Ragin' Cajuns opted to remain D-IA. McNeese met the requirements but decided to drop with the rest of the conference. (I think the Ragin' Cajuns made the right move.) The Southland had a rule that if a member played a sport sponsored by the conference, the member needed to play the conference schedule. The Ragin' Cajuns couldn't do that and remain D-IA. The Southland didn't offer any relief in the rules. (I think that was a shame...lost a good conference member with a lot of success in sports other than football.)

In 1987, several universities (Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, and Lamar) left the conference to form the American South Conference along with UL, UNO, and UTPA.