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Athletics: Cajuns tied for 13th in Pentathlam – Glen Raggio added new component

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, July 9, 2016

It’s early July.

For big fans of college sports, that means it’s time to start getting geared up for the start of football summer camps around the country next month.

For some fans in these parts over the past 12 seasons, though, it’s actually time to reflect back on this past school season and see how the UL Ragin’ Cajuns team sports fared on the playing field compared to other programs of all shapes and sizes across the land.

Longtime UL fan Glen Raggio has been compiling this information throughout that 12-year period. He calls it the Pentathlam, but he’s added a little twist to the 2016 figures that he’s recently concluded.

He’s added the Septathlam to it.

The concept is simple. Raggio wondered one day exactly how many times UL’s team sports win on the field relative to the rate of the power schools, the other mid-majors and even the FCS (or 1-AA) programs.

In effect, Raggio was trying to gauge how many ‘happy days’ fans of each program around the country enjoy. At least that’s what I’ve called it for years when the New Orleans Saints or Houston Astros win, just on the college level.

So while these percentages certainly don’t tell the entire story, they absolutely detail the amount of game-day smiles.

The winning percentages in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball make up the Pentathlam.

The Septathlam adds the other two pure team sports — women’s soccer and volleyball — that UL participates in to create a new seven-sport competition.

In 2014, the Cajuns reached an all-time high of No. 3 overall in the Pentathlam. In 2015, UL was exceptionally high again at No. 12.

This past season, the Cajuns were tied for 13th with the Ohio State Buckeyes with an overall winning percentage of 68.50. Amazingly, both the Cajuns and Buckeyes had identical combined records of 137-63 in the five sports.

To put that No. 13 spot into some perspective, the only schools from non-Power Five Conference leagues to finish ahead of UL were James Madison at No. 10 and BYU at No. 12.

James Madison of the Colonial Conference enjoyed winning seasons in four of the five sports, led obviously by its 50-6 showing in softball before losing to LSU in the Super Regionals. The Dukes were 9-3 in football, 21-11 in men’s basketball, 27-6 in women’s basketball and only baseball had a losing season at 24-31.

BYU, on the other hand, had winning seasons in all five, just no one had the record of James Madison’s softball squad. The Cougars were 9-4 in football, 26-11 in men’s basketball, 26-7 in women’s basketball, 37-17 in baseball and 36-21 in softball.

The Cajuns, meanwhile, only had a losing season in football at 4-8 and was led by their spring sports as usual with baseball going 43-21 and softball 46-9. Men’s basketball was 19-15 and women’s basketball 25-10.

The other mid-majors in the Top 25 were Fresno State at No. 17 and new Sun Belt member Coastal Carolina at No. 18. While Coastal Carolina’s incredible national championship run in baseball at 55-18 led the way, its programs were also 9-3 in football, 21-12 in men’s basketball, 37-22 in softball and 12-18 in women’s basketball.

In the big picture, Florida was No. 1 with a winning percentage of 75.94, followed by Louisville at 73.20.

LSU took a bit of a dip this past school year down to No. 23 after being No. 2 overall in 2015 and No. 14 in 2014.

Then there’s the 12-year Pentathlam totals, which illustrates consistency over an extended period of time in the five major team sports — at least from the South’s perspective.

The Louisville Cardinals finished No. 1 over the past 12 years with a winning percentage of 70.84, followed closely by Florida at 70.69. LSU was No. 6 over the 12-year period at 68.72.

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns, meanwhile, are one of only two non-Power Five programs to finish in the top 25 over the extended period at No. 21 with a 62.64 winning percentage. BYU is the other one at No. 17 with a 64.77 winning percentage.

Those finishes are based on competing in all five sports for 12 years, which totals 156 schools. By comparison, 172 schools played all five this past school year and 161 played all seven in 2015-16.

Consequently, there were six schools with higher winning percentages than UL’s 62.64 over the 12-year period. That list includes Duke (64.85 in 49 of the 60 sports), Vanderbilt (64.39, 48 sports), Miami, Fla. (63.10, 48), Chattanooga (62.69, 47), Montana (64.41, 38) and Gonzaga (68.48, 36).

As for Raggio’s new Septathlam, the Cajuns dropped to No. 27 with women’s soccer being 8-10 and volleyball enduring a 6-23 campaign.

James Madison rose to No. 6 in that category at 69.87 and Coastal Carolina was No. 14 after going 12-7 in soccer and 25-5 in volleyball. The only other two mid-majors ahead of UL in the Septathlam were Albany of the America East at No. 25 and Princeton of the Ivy League at No. 26.

LSU dropped to No. 31 in the Septathlam with a 9-20 showing in volleyball.

2016 Pentathlam Standings

(5 sports – Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Softball)

School

Win %

1. Florida

75.94

2. Louisville

73.20

3. Oklahoma

72.68

4. Florida State

72.60

5. Michigan

71.00

6. Texas A&M

70.87

7. Oregon

70.85

8. Notre Dame

70.62

9. South Carolina

70.39

10. James Madison

69.68

11. Baylor

69.54

12. BYU

69.07

13. Ohio State

68.50

(tie) Louisiana

68.50

15. Kentucky

68.02

16. Michigan State

66.49

17. Fresno State

66.32

18. Coastal Carolina

64.73

19. Alabama

64.36

20. New Mexico State

64.25

21. Washington

63.92

22. Oregon State

63.78

23. LSU

63.68

24. Arizona

62.91

25. North Carolina

62.63

26. Louisiana Tech

62.50

27. Connecticut

62.38

28. Ole Miss

62.00

29. Texas

61.98

30. Georgia

61.69

 

Other Schools of Interest

School

Win %

34. McNeese State

60.75

52. South Alabama

57.37

84. Southern Miss

53.13

94. Texas State

51.79

95. Northwestern State

51.70

101. Georgia Southern

50.53

(tie) Troy

50.53

120. Nicholls State

47.85

125. Georgia State

47.34

129. Southern U.

46.41

142. Southeastern, La.

43.92

150. UL Monroe

41.27

160. Grambling

37.50

168. Appalachian State

32.07

 

12-Year Pentathlam Standings

(5 sports – Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Softball)

School

Win %

1. Louisville

70.84

2. Florida

70.69

3. Oklahoma

69.63

4. Florida State

69.01

5. North Carolina

68.90

6. LSU

68.72

7. Texas

68.14

8. Texas A&M

68.02

9. Notre Dame

67.67

10. Arizona State

67.66

11. Tennessee

67.66

12. Ohio State

67.15

13. Baylor

65.97

14. UCLA

65.45

15. Stanford

65.02

16. Michigan

64.86

17. BYU

64.77

18. Alabama

64.75

19. Connecticut

63.64

20. Arizona

63.46

21. Louisiana

62.64

22. Georgia

62.62

23. Kentucky

61.30

24. Nebraska

61.27

25. California

61.26

26. Fresno State

61.23

27. Coastal Carolina

60.61

28. Georgia Tech

60.48

29. Missouri

60.48

30. Oklahoma

59.68

 

Other Schools of Interest

School

Win %

34. James Madison

58.77

43. Western Kentucky

56.71

75. Middle Tennessee

52.37

76. Texas State

52.11

77. Southern Miss

54.13

82. Florida Atlantic

51.57

83. Georgia Southern

51.52

85. Troy

51.25

88. McNeese State

51.10

90. Louisiana Tech

51.06

99. Northwestern State

49.57

104. Appalachian State

48.80

105. Southern U.

48.75

112. Florida International

48.41

115. Southeastern, La.

48.18

137. Northern Illinois

43.15

139. UL Monroe

42.53

145. Nicholls State

39.95

155. Grambling

32.55

 

Septathlam Standings

(7 sports – Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Women’s Soccer, Volleyball)

School

Win %

1. Florida

76.81

2. Florida State

74.33

3. BYU

72.65

4. Louisville

72.31

5. Texas A&M

71.81

6. James Madison

69.87

7. Michigan

69.17

8. Ohio State

68.63

9. Oklahoma

68.40

10. Washington

67.61

11. Kentucky

67.49

12. Baylor

67.36

13. South Carolina

66.93

14. Coastal Carolina

66.80

15. Oregon

65.73

16. Texas

65.69

17. Michigan State

64.88

18. Notre Dame

64.49

19. North Carolina

64.26

20. Ole Miss

63.49

21. Minnesota

63.27

22. Connecticut

62.89

23. Arizona

62.78

24. Nebraska

62.30

25. Albany

61.40

26. Princeton

61.17

27. Louisiana

61.13

28. Fresno State

60.74

29. Alabama

60.56

30. UCLA

60.49

 

Other Schools of Interest

School

Win %

31. LSU

60.38

44. Louisiana Tech

58.68

46. South Alabama

58.58

53. McNeese State

56.78

70. Southern Miss

54.13

72. Texas State

54.10

91. Troy

51.67

94. Northern Illinois

51.50

114. Georgia Southern

47.56

116. Northwestern State

47.06

121. Georgia State

46.32

125. Southeastern, La.

45.57

128. Nicholls State

45.22

142. Southern U.

41.50

145. UL Monroe

41.25

146. Appalachian State

39.57

155. Grambling

34.30