Copied from YOGWF:

"Future schedules, starting in '06, will have LSU and (hopefully) Ole Miss on them in a 10-game home-and-home arrangement. Now with the (supposed) superiority of the SEC staring us right in the face, you would think that in most of those years you could pencil in 0-2 for those two contests in August. Onus is now on Scelfo, or any sucessor(s), to show that TU can compete with these SEC teams. Before MSU came on the schedule we hadn't won over an SEC team since the late '80s, discounting the forfeit by Alabama in the early '90s. Question is: Can Scelfo go to the theorhetical "next level" and produce some wins over these two?"

I know the guy who posted this is a long suffering Tulane fan and he means well. But his post comes from the negative perspective. I know many of you in the sales field have heard this kind of approach as "stinking thinking." We, as Tulane fans should not be afraid to say something like, "Scelfo has obviously been putting together a solid football program and appears to be entering the next level. The schedules of the near future offer too SEC opponents with a long history between them and Tulane. They also offer Tulane the opportunity to show how far the Green Wave has come under Scelfo's excellent leadership."

I agree completely. When fielding a solid team, we have always been very competitive with mid-level SEC teams. There should be absolutely no shrinking from playing Ole Miss, our goal has to be to compete at that level year in and year out. The only game you'd look at objectively and say that we lose it the majority of the time, based only on how things are at the moment, is LSU, and there are a million other reasons to play that one regardless. The 12 game season leaves room for 2 other OOC games to schedule as likely wins to balance things out quite nicely.

I also agree that it is not a good idea to tack on Bama AND Auburn on top of LSU / Ole Miss. We need to develop further to be competitive against all of those put together, plus CUSA.

LSU and Ole Miss on the schedule is fine (although we gave LSU too many tickets - leaves only 30K for our fans) and good for ticket sales and attendance.

But that's enough. I know we can't do anything about the ones already signed, but no more 0/1s, 1/2s etc. and we don't need more than those 2 SEC teams in 1 season.

Army is good.

And then a 1AA to ensure 7 home games or perhaps a 3/2 series with Monroe would be a good 4th ooc game. Monroe gives some n la exposure and they aren't bitter people with a chip on their shoulder.

LSU/Bama/Ole Miss is ambitious and I like it for a three-year span. I think by then, we should have a solid program in place. Football should be at the point where we've got quality Junior/Senior starters in place with RS Freshmen/Soph back-ups behind them. Playing these schools will be a good litmus test of where we stand and it's something we can afford to take a chance on since C-USA West teams are just about on par with us currently. With a 12-game schedule to work around, I think this will work out fine fo rus. In fact, I think recruiting will get a slight boost because we're willing to play some higher profile teams.