Louisiana football deserves a better New Orleans Bowl matchup than Marshall

In their fourth postseason game since Billy Napier was hired in December 2017, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns will play Marshall on Dec. 18 (8:15 p.m., ESPN) at the New Orleans Bowl.

Ranked No. 17 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll, 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 and 23 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, the Cajuns, frankly, deserves a better matchup.

Much better.

UL (12-1) has won 12 straight, including a 24-16 Sun Belt Conference championship game win over Appalachian State, Napier’s last game as UL coach before taking over at Florida.

The destination is nice.

UL hasn’t been to New Orleans since losing to Southern Miss in 2016. The bowl site is close enough to be a fun, convenient and affordable weekend getaway. Bourbon Street beckons, and Cajun backers aren’t shy to answer a party call.

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The bowl itself is fine too.

It has the longest-standing relationship with the Sun Belt among the five bowls that have primary tie-in contracts with the conference. Well-run and staged in a Super Bowl-worthy venue, the Superdome, it’s the league’s marquee offering.

New Orleans draws well when the Cajuns play there, including 42,841 for UL’s 2011 win over San Diego State remembered for Brett Baer’s game-winning 50-yard field goal, 48,828 for its 2012 win over East Carolina in which Alonzo Harris ran for two touchdowns, a bowl-record 54,728 for a 2013 win over Tulane that ended on Carlos Santos’ missed 48-yard field goal try and 34,014 for a 2011 win over Nevada in which Hunter Stover hit three field goals.

“I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things about it from people I’ve talked to,” said athletics director Bryan Maggard, who’ll experience his first New Orleans Bowl.

But the matchup?

All about Marshall

Marshall (7-5) has lost two of its last three, including 53-21 to Conference USA championship-game loser Western Kentucky. Its only non-conference victories were over Navy and North Carolina Central, and it lost to App State.

No disrespect to the Thundering Herd, which has been to its fair share of recent bowls, including a 2020 Camellia Bowl loss to Buffalo and a 2019 Gasparilla Bowl loss to UCF.

The school’s storied football history includes two NCAA Division I-AA national championships and a monumental restoration – inspiring the 2006 movie “We are Marshall” – following a tragic 1970 plane crash that claimed all 75 passengers, including 37 players and coach Rick Tolley.

Marshall produced two Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrines, center Frank “Gunner” Gatski and receiver Randy Moss, and notable former NFL quarterbacks Byron Leftwich and 1999 Heisman Trophy finalist Chad Pennington.

But a 12-1 conference champ versus a 7-5 program that didn’t play in its league title game doesn’t exactly scream must-see TV.

Marshall already announced it’s soon leaving Conference USA for the Sun Belt, along with Southern Miss, Old Dominion and James Madison, so there’s that.

ESPN the puppet master

But a UL-LSU New Orleans Bowl would have been as sweet as a plate of praline. Because of SEC bowl obligations, however, that was never realistic.

Pitting the Cajuns against Conference USA champion UTSA (12-1) would have been as hot as beignets fresh from the fryer at Café Du Monde, but those same two teams met – UL won – in last season’s First Responder Bowl at Dallas.

So ESPN, which calls the shots, sent the Roadrunners to the Frisco Bowl in Texas to face San Diego State (11-2).

That’s a terrific matchup.

ESPN has App State (10-3) playing Western Kentucky (8-5) in the Dec. 18 Boca Raton Bowl, which isn’t among the Sun Belt’s usual five but is among 18 ESPN owned-and-operated bowls.

That’s reasonable, as is Coastal Carolina (10-2) against MAC member Northern Illinois (9-4) at the ESPN-controlled Cure Bowl in Orlando, another primary Sun Belt tie-in.

ESPN also has Sun Belt member Georgia State (7-5) playing the MAC’s Ball State (6-6) at the Christmas Day Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. That sounds ho-ho-hum, but it’s sensible too.

But UL against the Thundering Herd in Cajuns coach Michael Desormeaux’s debut?

Maggard didn’t knock it.

“Marshall is a very good football program, despite any record they might have,” he said.

“We’re just excited to be in that city and play football there for our final game, send our seniors out the right way. If anyone was questioning, or a little bit disappointed about the opponent, I think Cajun nation is going to be excited to see our new next head football coach in action.”

But UL really does deserves better this year.

Bowl contracts and ESPN interests complicate things.

But why not, let’s just say, send the Cajuns to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl to play No. 14 BYU (10-2), rather than giving BYU unranked UAB, then figure out something else for the New Orleans Bowl?

If the CFP can be expanded, why not be flexible enough to give UL a more meaningful matchup?

It’s something for Cajun fans to ponder, perhaps over a Pat O’s hurricane, while awaiting a Thundering Herd.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana football needs better New Orleans Bowl matchup than Marshall