Dear Mr. Pryor,

After reading your comments regarding Louisiana, Louisiana Tech and ULM and your suggestion that these universities should move their football programs to FCS, I believe a few things need to be addressed.

Let’s begin with something fairly basic.

FBS and FCS are both Division I.

Louisiana is Division I.

Louisiana Tech is Division I.

ULM is Division I.

Grambling, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana are also Division I.

The distinction is between the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision.

That might sound like semantics to someone casually discussing college football at the dinner table. It should not be semantics to a member of the Louisiana Board of Regents participating in discussions that could fundamentally alter the future of athletic programs at three public universities.

Yet you were quoted saying:

“Schools that are trying to play Division I … that’s just a sinking hole trying to play Division I ball.”

They aren’t trying to play Division I football.

They already do.

That may seem like a minor mistake, but it becomes considerably more significant when the person making it is simultaneously suggesting that three universities abandon the highest subdivision of college football.

If you’re going to recommend something that consequential, understanding the terminology seems like a pretty reasonable starting point.

You also suggested that Louisiana, Louisiana Tech and ULM need to have some “self-realization” and eat some “humble pie.”

Perhaps some humility is appropriate here.

Before lecturing universities, alumni, donors and supporters about accepting their place in the college athletics hierarchy, it might be worth understanding the hierarchy first.

And then there was perhaps the most dismissive comment of all:

“I don’t think much of the public would know the difference if they all play the same level.”

I believe that profoundly underestimates the people who support these universities.

Louisiana fans know the difference.

Louisiana Tech fans know the difference.

ULM fans know the difference.

Their alumni know it.

Their donors know it.

Their season-ticket holders know it.

Their corporate sponsors know it.

Their recruits certainly know it.

The television networks know it.

The conferences know it.

And the College Football Playoff knows it.

There are legitimate financial questions facing college athletics. Nobody should pretend otherwise. The House settlement, revenue sharing, NIL, escalating coaching salaries and increasing operating costs have changed the economics of the sport dramatically.

Those issues deserve serious discussion.

But serious discussion requires more than pointing at a deficit and deciding a university needs to know its place.

It requires studying revenue distributions, media rights, guarantees, sponsorships, fundraising, enrollment impact, alumni engagement and the economic value athletics provides to a university and its community.

It also requires applying the same level of scrutiny consistently.

When Louisiana, Tech and ULM are singled out because of athletic deficits while LSU athletics itself has reported a massive deficit, the public is entitled to ask why the proposed solution seems to begin with reducing the ambitions of the state’s smaller universities rather than examining the financial structure affecting college athletics as a whole.

And that is really the issue here.

Nobody is arguing that Louisiana’s universities should be immune from financial accountability.

They shouldn’t be.

But accountability works both ways.

If university leaders are expected to know their numbers, understand their industry and make informed decisions, the people overseeing those universities should be expected to demonstrate that same level of understanding.

Louisiana’s universities deserve thoughtful oversight.

They deserve informed questions.

They deserve scrutiny.

And when major changes are being discussed, their students, alumni and supporters deserve something better than being told they probably wouldn’t notice the difference anyway.

You suggested these universities might need a serving of humble pie.

Maybe before that pie gets passed around, everyone at the table should make sure they understand what’s actually on the menu.

Respectfully,

A Louisiana taxpayer and supporter of higher education