Link: "No LSU football" scare tactic for LA budget

CrimsonForce

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And that's the real reason Les is still employed at LSU - they couldn't justify firing Les and paying his buyout plus his assistants buyout. All of that on top of paying an incoming coach's buyout plus the salary for the new coaches. What a mess..
 

TideMan09

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Seems smart to threaten the most popular sport in the State & the most profitable as well..A sure fire way to become a "Former Governor" in any Southern State is to threaten our College Football by shutting 'Er Down..
 

4Q Basket Case

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At a much smaller level (small town or county), this tactic has been used in Alabama to get tax hikes of one sort or another passed. As in, "No tax increase, no high school extra-curricular activities, including football."

Since that also encompasses cheerleading and the marching band, it gets a lot of parents' attention laser-focused.

Never seen it done at the state level, though.
 

bamachile

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John Bel Edwards is playing 'new sheriff in town' at the moment. This isn't the first over-the-top statement he's made. I won't say more, as I don't want to throw the thread to the NS board, but it's mere grandstanding.
 

rgw

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Funding is hard to come by in this climate especially in the South but I don't think these scare tactics are intellectually honest either.
 

Crimson1967

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One year when I lived in Knoxville they could not settle the state budget and the government shut down on July 1. Nobody cared. State parks and rest stops shut down. Nobody cared. UT said they could not hold classes the second half of summer semester. Nobody cared. People said they would not be able to complete their graduate degrees if the university shut down. Nobody cared. They said a bunch of football players would not be academically eligible if they missed the second summer session. People cared and the budget quickly settled.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Bamabuzzard

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John Bel Edwards is playing 'new sheriff in town' at the moment. This isn't the first over-the-top statement he's made. I won't say more, as I don't want to throw the thread to the NS board, but it's mere grandstanding.
Dude's a real peace of work isn't he? Let's cut funding for TOPS to save money but rescind restrictions on welfare recipients so it makes it easier for them to get and stay on welfare without having to look for employment. BRILLIANT!!!!
 

selmaborntidefan

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The new way to get your way is to threaten football?

I guess I better quit now or this is heading to NS. He's not a piece of work, but he is a piece of.....something....
 

CajunCrimson

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Dude's a real peace of work isn't he? Let's cut funding for TOPS to save money but rescind restrictions on welfare recipients so it makes it easier for them to get and stay on welfare without having to look for employment. BRILLIANT!!!!
Well he is an Edwards. :(
 

B1GTide

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Doesn't seem like a threat to me. If the government doesn't have money, it shuts down. Happens all over America every year at the city, state and national level. When that happens, only critical services remain available. Hard to argue that a university is a critical service.

I don't know or care about politics in LA, but this is just how these things work. Making the consequences clear to the public early on just makes sense. Now, the real discussion should be about why the state cares more about college football than the more important services at risk but I am not going there.
 

KrAzY3

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Doesn't seem like a threat to me. If the government doesn't have money, it shuts down. Happens all over America every year at the city, state and national level. When that happens, only critical services remain available. Hard to argue that a university is a critical service.
It's hard to respond without being completely non-sports but this entire approach is disingenuous and only people who seem to applaud overreaching, bloated government seem to approve of this behavior.

First, let's be clear here. LSU football makes money. Any losses on the part of the athletic department is a result of, you guessed it, bloated over-reaching government. Secondly, in a rational world, it would be possible to keep the revenue positive aspects of a university going even if you have to shut down the areas that are without a doubt wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

The trick that politicians have used, in Alabama, and nationally is disgusting and honestly this is why we see outsiders running strong campaigns. Politicians have become disgusting, despicable extortionists. What happened when the federal government shut down? They actually found the money to employ people to barricade monuments in public view! They closed down public roads, as though the road was going to misbehave if a politician wasn't getting paid. They employed people, spent money taking punitive measures against American citizens because they were not getting their way. In Alabama they've threatened things they thought people cared about, rather than doing common sense thing and shutting down wasteful programs.

There simply should be no tolerance for this behavior. Now, should LSU's athletic department behave themselves financially? Sure, should their football program? Sure, should the university as a whole? Absolutely, but the problem is not funding, it's waste and the waste does not come from a profitable football program.
 

Redwood Forrest

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By far the easiest way to raise taxes is to use our children. YES, I SAID USE OUR CHILDREN. Shame to all those who do such a thing. I pray to God that I never USE MY CHILDREN for some political purpose. I guess next would be our teens in sports. A shame.
 

KrAzY3

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Is it a threat if it is a reality of life? If I tell you that you will get fat if you eat too much, am I threatening you?
Is it a threat if I tell you that unless you give me money I will beat you until you do? It might be how the government does it, but it isn't how they have to do it.
 

B1GTide

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First, let's be clear here. LSU football makes money. Any losses on the part of the athletic department is a result of, you guessed it, bloated over-reaching government. Secondly, in a rational world, it would be possible to keep the revenue positive aspects of a university going even if you have to shut down the areas that are without a doubt wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
Sorry - not true. Notice that there was no threat to shut down the football program. You guys have invented that here, in this thread. The statement is that they would have to shut down all state schools until there is money available. Any conservative would agree that the government cannot spend money that it doesn't have.

The result is that the players would not academically qualify to play football when the school reopens.

Now, maybe the football program or boosters could agree to fund classes only for its football players so they remained academically eligible. Not sure if that is legal or not, but it would be a way for the football program to stay on track without funds from the state.

ETA - this is my mentioning real options available vs how things could have been done differently in the past to avoid this.
 
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B1GTide

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Is it a threat if I tell you that unless you give me money I will beat you until you do? It might be how the government does it, but it isn't how they have to do it.
Okay, I get it - you are turning this into a philosophical debate instead of a debate about where they are now, and their real options available. In that case, I agree with you and BB. Without getting into politics too much, I am a libertarian so pretty much opposed to everything that our government is doing today.
 

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