Those in glass houses should not throw stones

As you know Tulane baseball coach Rick Jones received a reprimand from Conference USA for making disparaging public comments about Marshall University during a live-audience radio show in New Orleans.

If you have not read the story check the Charleston Gazette for full details: http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/Marshall/201105241284?page=2&build=cache

What upset me most about Jones misplaced tirade was this comment:

"What do they (Marshall University) bring to our league? What do they bring to our league? And I'm talking about across the board. Things need to be cleaned up there."

That comment brings me back to the title of this post, those in glass houses should not throw stones. What exactly, if any thing, does Tulane bring to C-USA? Lets take a closer look at Green Wave athletics to find out.

The two biggest sports in college athletics are football and men’s basketball. Since Marshall joined C-USA Tulane has been awful in both. The Green Wave had to over come major issues after hurricane Katrina but both programs were not performing well before hand.

Tulane’s last winning season in football was 2002. Marshall has played Tulane four times since joining C-USA and defeated the Green Wave in every meeting. Tulane plays it’s home football games in the cavernous Louisiana Super Dome to little fan fair. Despite a 13 – 35 record as Tulane’s football coach Bob Toledo still has a job.

The basketball program is even worse. In 2009 Dave Dickerson was fired as Tulane’s head basketball coach after compiling a record of 71-85 over five seasons. Dickerson was replaced by Ed Conroy who had one winning season to his name before taking over at Tulane. This past year Conroy could only manage three conference wins and a 13 – 17 over all record. Tulane play’s its home basketball game at Fogelman Arena, a woefully inadequate facility built in 1933 with only 3,600 seats. The school is building a new basketball practice facility but games will remain at Fogelman.

Tulane recently added two athletic programs to comply with the NCAA’s minimum requirement of 16 teams for division one status. Both of the sports added by Tulane, woman’s bowling and sand volleyball are not sanctioned by C-USA. Woman’s bowling is only supported by 33 division one programs and sand volleyball was just recognized as a NCAA sport less than a year ago.

So I ask you Tulane fans, if such a thing exist, what do you bring to C-USA?