…who have crawled outta their holes tonite and stumbled in. There’s nothing you can say or do to make me feel bad about today’s result. As I’ve already commented, it largely vindicates me on the wisdom of keeping you on the schedule now that U of L fans are experiencing that again firsthand. Any U of L fan who wants (or wanted) to play LPT is getting a nice dose of the downside tonite. And I’ll bet it’s a lot more extreme than they remember the upside to be.
My remarks are hardly disingenuous and coincidental with today's game result; U of L fans know I've been on this crusade for awhile, and it will continue. What slappies confuse as my disdain for you and your school is not much affected by the on-the-field/court results. Indeed, the results are almost irrelevant. When I see LPT on one of our schedules, it doesn’t evoke fear or joy or hatred or any other basic emotion, most of which are far too intense to describe my attitude. You just cause me to ask “why?”
When LPT wasn’t on the schedule, U of L fans still alive today wanted you on it. We needed you there. Our athletic programs were developing, and we needed recognition and schedule strength and the opportunity to compete with a big(ger) program. From the LPT perspective, that’s exactly why we weren’t on your schedule. Uncle Adolph and his kind knew that not scheduling U of L slowed our progress if it didn’t necessarily stop it. Basketball was the principal concern because LPT is and always will be a basketball school. Other sports didn’t matter, and we were way behind in football at one time, maybe more so than any other sport.
That was a couple generations ago, and things are vastly different today. In the ACC, Louisville has a platform that is the equal of the SEC, all sports considered. We have a national brand, and we dominate this area of Kentucky and Indiana. Our athletics revenues are close to LPT’s, and as Doc Ramsey used to say, our “trajectory” is far more positive. It’s nothing close to the situation that once existed.
Today’s situation in fact requires a different approach... With only 12 games on the football schedule, there shouldn’t be a school on it that doesn’t need to be there. Two-thirds of those games aren’t in the discussion; we have to schedule Wake Forest and Boston College from the ACC in order to be a member even though we don’t need them either. But the remaining four schools each year should be scrutinized. If they aren’t home-only revenue games, they need to bolster our schedule strength or be there by popular demand. LPT used to check both boxes. Now, you for damn sure don’t help our SOS, and we sell out our games regardless of who we play. All of our games are on some form of national or regional TV.
Quite simply, LPT is the other spouse in a dying relationship: we don’t need you anymore. It’s not hate or even strong dislike. It’s more apathy and indifference. For a growing part of our fanbase, you don’t stir our emotions any longer. And you don’t hold up your end of the relationship. You’re a basketball school which doesn’t understand what that means to your other sports programs. You use superficial metrics like “how much we’ve invested” to justify your football commitment, while your own football players acknowledge they’ll always be a red-headed stepchild. You have ten to fifteen thousand fans in your stadium on senior day. With all due respect, that’s a sorry excuse for a “football rival”.
And for a lotta U of L fans, it’s also a matter of kinship (or lack thereof). Many I know have a hard time relating to slapd!cks and your mentality. You’re the family relation we have to muster our willingness to visit. If we don’t know you, we mutter “uggh” when you pull up next to us in the parking lot. We really don’t want you in our parking lot, our basketball arena or football stadium. Many of us think it looks worse with you there and would prefer not to go inside yours. We don’t care to see or hear you, and if we’re too close, to smell you. We don’t hate you, we just don’t enjoy being around you.
Now, tell me I’m wrong even if you’re a U of L fan reading this. Tell me, U of L fans, how much you like having slappies in your presence. Tell me how you love going up and shaking their hands after a game like today’s. Tell me they’re no different than any other fanbase you encounter. Then, try to convince me how much you’re telling the truth.
I say it time and again…it comes down to respect. You don’t respect someone you’ve grown tired of, don’t wanna be with, or don’t want your name alongside of. LPT is the spouse that’s too easy to stay married to instead of doing the right thing, and we don’t get anything positive out of the relationship. At least not anymore.
LPT Football: We only wish people would like us…
