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American Press
10 hours ago
- Business
- American Press
Jim Gazzolo column: Time to reap the rebuild
McNeese State Cowboys and Lamar Cardinals face off in the championship game during the 2025 Southland Conference Basketball Tournament, Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. McNeese defeats Lamar 63 - 54. (Kirk Meche via American Press) It has been five years since the devastation. Five long years of rehabilitation. Now, McNeese hopes it's ready for domination. 'I think we are in the best position we have ever been in,' proclaims Athletic Director Heath Schroyer. Of course, he has always been the program's biggest cheerleader, so that should be taken into consideration. However, as summer workouts get into full swing in the major sports, he might not be wrong. Schroyer has led the athletic program through lean times, but with the help of the school's administration, the Cowboys are poised for a successful year. If only games were played on paper, then the coming athletic year at the corner of McNeese and Common streets would be the biggest of all time. Still, no program in the Southland Conference is better prepared for what will come after the $2.8 billion NCAA settlement announced last week. Schroyer's staff has been ready to pivot in any direction college athletics turn. A year ago, McNeese hired Keifer Ackley to lead its name, image and likeness efforts. Hailing themselves as the top NIL department in the Southland, Ackley was brought on board to take the Cowboys to another level. You can talk about new facilities, coaching, and tradition all you want, but today's college athletics comes down to money. It's a simple business formula: the teams that spend the wisest have the best chances to win. There is no guarantee to this formula, it just flips the odds in the spender's favor. McNeese isn't winning bidding wars with the bigger schools, but it can certainly put up a fight in its own backyard, and that's all its fans can hope for these days. And the investments they have made over the past five long years could be set to pay off this coming season. There will likely be more investments forthcoming, including stadium naming rights. In a cash-and-carry game, every penny counts. McNeese also hopes to maintain its position as the attendance leader in the league. According to the SLC Sports Report, the Cowboys led the Southland in total attendance, with 185,483 fans throughout all sports last year. That was some 54,000 more than second-place newcomer Texas-Rio Grande Valley, which didn't have football last year. UTRGV starts football this season and could overtake McNeese. But what separates McNeese from the rest of the league is coaching. With three new head coaches in the five major sports, one could expect a slide. Not likely for McNeese. The athletic department will start the new year with three of its five major sports, led by head coaches who own the school record for wins in their respective sports, as Matt Viator returns to the football sideline. Viator joins James Landreneau (softball) and Justin Hill (baseball) as the winningest coaches in their respective sports at McNeese. 'That is unheard of,' Schroyer said. 'We are very fortunate to have those coaches leading our programs.' Combined, the three have been named SLC Coach of the Year nine times, with Landreneau leading the way with four such honors. As for the two brand-new coaches, Ayla Guzzardo takes over the women's basketball program after transforming Southeastern Louisiana into a league power. She has won two of the last three SLC top coaching honors for her sport, giving McNeese a total of 11 in the Big Five. Bill Armstrong takes over the top program, the men's basketball team, after Will Wade won the last two titles for the Cowboys and coaching awards. Armstrong seems to have brought in the best talent possible in McNeese hoops history. You can see why it appears McNeese is on the upswing, but there are no guarantees. With increased investment comes greater pressure to win, win now, and win big. Fans expect it, and boosters generally demand it. They are businesspeople who expect to see results from their investments. But this is what McNeese officials have been asking for: to be treated like they are sitting at the adult table. Being the best in the Southland is nice, but it has never been the end goal. There is more to come for McNeese as the game continues to evolve. However, it has to start with a big year. The coming year is a pivotal one for the program's direction. You can only claim you are rebuilding for so long. Eventually you have to complete the process. • Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@
American Press
3 days ago
- Business
- American Press
NCAA settlement fallout: McNeese has NIL plan as it enters new economic era
The term student-athlete died on Friday. For years, the NCAA has attempted to distinguish its players from professionals, emphasizing that they are students first. That mirage now seems lost forever. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave final approval to the landmark settlement in the House vs. NCAA antitrust lawsuit, which had been ongoing for five years, ending nearly a year of negotiations and revisions. The $2.8 billion, 10-year settlement will pay past players for missed name, image and likeness opportunities and allow colleges to pay current players directly starting July 1. As schools of all levels throughout the country scramble to figure out what's next, McNeese State officials say they are ready for the future. 'It's a new and exciting time for college athletics,' McNeese Director of Athletics Heath Schroyer said. 'My staff and I have been working for over a year to prepare. We've considered how these changes will impact McNeese athletics and also how we can best position ourselves.' Schroyer said McNeese will buy into the program, while other Football Championship Subdivision and Southland Conference schools will consider opting out. Houston Christian is likely one of those. 'We've decided to opt in and bring our collective/NIL in-house and participate in revenue sharing,' he said. 'We'll keep the same scholarship numbers this first year for each sport. During this first year, we will evaluate both our financial situation and the national landscape.' With the NIL becoming entirely in-house, the Ranch Collective, which previously ran the program, will transition into a new role, said Keifer Ackley, assistant AD for NIL and Student-Athlete at McNeese. 'This will allow us to streamline the process,' Ackley said. 'This will make us more transparent.' The Ranch Collective is likely to transition into a more marketing-focused tool for the university, he said. For now, it appears all programs will remain, but this is a fluid situation on all levels, and McNeese's goal, Schroyer said, remains to move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level if the opportunity arises. There is also no telling what will come next as lawsuits are expected to be filed over a variety of concerns. 'Sometimes these decisions aren't popular with everyone, and that's OK,' Schroyer said. 'I get it. The only constant in life is change; college athletics have undergone significant changes in the last few years, and this trend is likely to continue.' NCAA President Charlie Baker wrote an open letter after the settlement: 'Approving the agreement reached by the NCAA, the defendant conferences and student-athletes in the settlement opens a pathway to begin stabilizing college sports,' Baker wrote. 'This new framework that enables schools to provide direct financial benefits to student-athletes and establishes clear and specific rules to regulate third-party NIL agreements marks a huge step forward for college sports.' Earlier this spring, Baker spoke to McNeese athletes about the future of college sports and seemed shocked by the number of players who had transferred to the school. As part of the settlement, McNeese, along with the other FCS schools, will be required to pay $180,000 this year and between $25,000 and $300,000, which the NCAA will deduct from the funds it provides to the school. Helping to pay for that will be a 12-game football schedule the FCS is expected to add in future years. The final decision on the extra game will be made in the last week of June. The settlement is a victory for power conference schools, which easily have the resources to cover the money and compete in what is now an unlimited bidding war. 'The approval of the House settlement agreement represents a significant milestone for the meaningful support of our student-athletes and a pivotal step toward establishing long-term sustainability for college sports, two of the Southeastern Conference's top priorities,' SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. 'As the journey to modernize collegiate sports continues, we remain focused on identifying and implementing innovative opportunities for our student-athletes across all sports while maintaining the core values that make collegiate athletics uniquely meaningful.' While it's not clear how it will all play out, McNeese says it expects to pivot with whatever comes next.
American Press
02-06-2025
- Sport
- American Press
McNeese sets times for home games
An architectural rendering of McNeese's new press box. (Special to the American Press) McNeese State is reverting to its pre-hurricane start times for its football games. Before hurricanes Laura and Delta disrupted the athletic department in the fall of 2020, the Cowboys started all home games at 6 p.m. For two seasons, they were forced to play at noon under the blazing sun while Cowboy Stadium was being renovated and a new lighting system was installed. Then, for two seasons, they played at 7 p.m. Now, with a new press box set to open and six home games scheduled for this season, McNeese is moving its games back to a 6 p.m. kickoff. 'After a lot of thought and discussion with a number of people that included season ticket holders, staff, campus employees, students and community members, it was the consensus that a 6 o'clock kick-off will allow our fans with children as well as those coming to games from the surrounding parishes, to get home at a reasonable time, and those tailgating will still be able to enjoy a full day of pregame gathering, one that will start the night before at our Friday Night Block Parties,' said Director of Athletics Heath Schroyer. Starting times for football have been a big talk in the league of late with many schools pushing for afternoon games. Some of that is for travel purposes. With the addition of Texas-Rio Grande Valley playing football this fall, the travel distance for teams has greatly increased. Some in the league wanted day games so players would get home earlier after long bus trips. There was even a push for the entire league to have start times no later than 4 p.m. Schroyer said at the time that McNeese would never go for that, stating that Saturday night games were a part of the football program's long history. The 6 p.m. start time will mean that fans on the east side of the stadium will have to deal with the sun more, especially early in the season. However, it also provides a different window in the ESPN+ schedule if most of the conference games are scheduled for the afternoon. McNeese will open its season on August 30 with a home game against Louisiana Christian, marking the return of Matt Viator as head coach. Viator is currently tied for most wins as a McNeese head coach after 10 seasons leading the Cowboys. He returns after nine seasons away from the program in hopes of turning the Cowboys around. They have not had a winning season since 2019, before the hurricanes. McNeese managed to achieve a 6-6 record last year, the second-largest turnaround in NCAA Division I football, behind only Indiana after a disastrous 0-11 season in 2023, the worst in school history. When the Cowboys open play, they will also unveil their new press box and suites, which replace the old one destroyed by Laura. In addition to the opener, McNeese will host Weber State on September 13, Southeastern on October 4, HCU for Homecoming on October 18, Northwestern State on November 1, and UTRGV on November 15. The Cowboys will not play Incarnate Word this season. McNeese players will be checking in for summer workouts and school starting this weekend, before practices begin next week.
Forbes
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
McNeese State Wins First NCAA Tournament Game After Coach Will Wade Reportedly Agrees To New Job
As the buzzer sounded late Thursday afternoon, McNeese State forward Quadir Copeland sprinted towards the school's cheering section at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. Forward Christian Shumate followed closely behind. The two embraced, reveling in No. 12 seed McNeese's 69-67 upset victory over No. 5 seed Clemson in an NCAA tournament Midwest Regional first round game. The celebration continued in the locker room. The team doused each other in water. And Amir Khan, the team's manager who went viral on social media for rapping alongside the Cowboys' players, blared Lud Foe's 'In and Out' on the boom box. Khan recently became the first manager to sign Name, Image and Likeness deals, signing contracts with Insomnia Cookies, TickPick and Buffalo Wild Wings. 'I just started rapping it again,' Khan said in an interview in the team's locker room afterward. 'They were all hyping me. It's been all of our dreams to win in March Madness. It was definitely electric in here.' McNeese's first NCAA tournament win its history occurred one day after multiple outlets reported coach Will Wade agreed to coach North Carolina State. Wade acknowledged during a press conference Wednesday that he or his agent had spoken with NC State, but he did not elaborate further. Wade also said he had talked with his players on Saturday about other programs expressing interest in hiring him. McNeese guard DJ Richards said Wade addressed the NC State situation with the team following Wednesday's reports, as well. 'He knows that we have social media,' Richards said. 'He knows that we have all those things. He knows that we see everything. He kept it real with us. He just told us everything straight up. We were like, 'That's next year.' We all know that's next year. Right now, we can do something special.' Wade, once one of the most heralded young coaches in the sport, has revitalized his career at McNeese. LSU fired Wade in March 2022 the NCAA alleged multiple recruiting violations. A year later, McNeese athletics director Heath Schroyer fired coach John Aiken after two seasons and hired Wade, whom Schroyer had known through mutual friends. Schroyer was McNeese's coach for three seasons before becoming AD. 'All across the country, a lot of people thought I was absolutely crazy,' Schroyer said after Thursday's victory. 'But it obviously has worked out pretty well.' Wade's discretions centered around alleged recruiting violations that are no longer relevant in this NIL era where players can legally get paid and earn money. 'It's a different game now,' Schroyer said. 'It's a different world, but I'll tell you what –coach Wade, because of his relationship with players and his transparency and honesty with players, he coaches them really hard. He loves them harder. He is made for this era.' Indeed, Wade was an instant hit at McNeese, signing several transfers and leading the Cowboys to the NCAA tournament last season for just the third time in school history. After McNeese lost to Gonzaga, 86-65, in the first round, Wade approached Schroyer. 'Coach put his arm around me and said, 'We got to get better,'' Schroyer said. Wade lived up to that promise. McNeese won the Southland Conference regular season and tournament titles for the second consecutive season. The Cowboys (28-6) have now won 12 consecutive game, tied with Duke for the third-longest winning streak in Division 1. They have 23 victories in their past 24 games, a stretch during which they are outscoring their opponents by an average of 14.3 points per game. At halftime Thursday, McNeese led, 31-13, scoring 15 points off turnovers and holding Clemson to just 20.8% shooting, including 1 of 15 (6.7%) on 3-pointers. During the final 15:59 of the first half, Clemson scored only 7 points on 3 of 15 shooting, including 1 of 12 on 3's. McNeese led by 22 points with 8 minute remaining and were up by 12 points with 1 minute left before Clemson made a furious rally, connecting on 4 3-pointers in the next 48 seconds. But the Cowboys had a dunk and made three of four free throws down the stretch to close out the victory. Brandon Murray, who played for Wade at LSU in the 2021-22 season and spent a season apiece at Georgetown and Ole Miss, came off the bench and led McNeese with 21 points. Copeland, who transferred to McNeese this season after two years at Syracuse, added 16 points and 7 rebounds, while Shumate, now in his fourth season at McNeese, had 13 points and 11 rebounds. 'It still feels like a dream,' Shumate said. 'I'm sure in a couple of days or when this all is over I'll wake up and look back at it like, 'OK, that really did happen' But right now we stay focused. We're trying to keep on winning games and we got to this point and we're looking forward and trying to get on to the next one and keep on moving forward. It's an amazing feeling.' On Saturday, the Cowboys will face No. 4 seed Purdue, which defeated No. 13 seed High Point, 75-63, earlier Thursday in Providence. The teams have only met once before, with Purdue winning, 109-65, in November 2016. For most of Thursday's game, Schroyer stood in the front row of McNeese's section, locked into the game like he was during his coaching days. Now an administrator, he took a risk hiring Wade two years ago, and it's paying off. 'Everyone kind of thought we were crazy,' Schroyer said. 'It's probably worked out a little bit better than we all thought.' He added: 'It's just overwhelming because I know people doubted us, people doubted me when I hired him, and there's so much work by so many people to get here. I just couldn't be happier for everyone involved in our entire community.'
