And to think, 4 seasons ago they were 12-0 in football and had better than average mens and womens hoops teams. Heck, their college baseball team was in the World Series the year before last. Guess this once again proves college athletics is all about the $$$.

Quote:Keith Meyer said he should have been enjoying himself more Tuesday.

Meyer is a Tulane graduate, professed die-hard Green Wave baseball fan, club-seat season-ticket holder and regular donor to the program. Meyer, a Gretna resident, and his 11-year old son, Brandon, were at the Superdome for the Green Wave's 9-5 win against LSU.

But overshadowing the game was the prospect that Tulane athletics, at least as Meyer knows them, has an uncertain future.

On May 29, an ad-hoc committee of the school's Board of Trustees will recommend to the full board as to the direction the program should go. Dropping from Division I-A to Division III is one of the options. Another option is removing sports from the university altogether.

Meyer is strongly opposed to the idea.

"It's terrible," he said. "If Tulane drops sports completely or even drops to a lower class, it's going to have a devastating effect on the school, and it's going to affect me drastically.

"I take a lot of pride in saying I'm a Tulane graduate, and I want my son to go to Tulane. But if this happens, I would really, really be disappointed."

Meyer wasn't the only Tulane fan at Tuesday's game expressing concern. "I think it's a shame that a university as old as Tulane and as big as Tulane would even be thinking about such a thing," said longtime fan Jackie Babin of Thibodaux. "And if they do, they're going to lose a lot of fans, and they're going to lose a lot of respect."

Division III is not an attractive idea to Herman Maiaro of Chalmette, a member of the St. Bernard chapter of the Tulane booster club. "If they're not in Division I, I might as well go watch high school games," he said.

The prospect of Tulane's leaving Division I-A has energized a good portion of the fan base.

"We need to have all of the Tulane people to come out right now and support the program," said Stanley Cohn of New Orleans, who holds undergraduate and law degrees from the school and is an active member of the Tulane Athletic Foundation.

"This is a wakeup call for everyone to come out and support Tulane athletics. It's gotten people stirred up, but they're also going to have to come out financially in gift-giving as well as buying tickets to games."

There were no "Save the Wave" efforts visible Tuesday, although the subject certainly seemed to be a hot topic.

In one opinion, even if Tulane stays in Division I-A, damage has been done. "There are a lot of people discouraged and unhappy," Maiaro said. "In the back of their minds they're thinking if they don't do it this year, they might do it next year."

<a href='http://www.nola.com/tulane/t-p/football/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1051683933302790.xml' target='_blank'>http://www.nola.com/tulane/t-p/football/in...83933302790.xml</a>

WOW!!! That IS big! :eek: :eek:

Hope you don't mind, but I copied this and put it up in the Rebel forum....thought it may interest some there.

Conference USA could be in serious trouble. If Louisville and Cincy go to the Big East and Tulane drops out that puts them down to 8 football teams scattered all over the country. Expenses are high for traveling and there won't be any real good football teams in that bunch.