Karl Malone let the world know how angry he was when he thought that Louisiana Tech decided to turn down a chance to play in a bowl game after its 9-3 season. However, it turns out that might not be the whole story.
The NBA Hall of Famer unleashed a series of tweets on Sunday ripping the program and saying it would be better off if he were on control, NESN reported .
“I am Bulldog to the core, I am heart broken and embarrassed that our university would do this to Tech Nation,” Karl Malone tweeted.
Louisiana Tech officials said that Malone ‘s anger is misplaced. Football officials at the school said they were left out of BCS consideration when Northern Illinois jumped into the Top 25, knocking them out of consideration for a bowl. The school denies that it turned down an official invitation, and Louisiana Tech officials are instead blaming the BCS for penalizing the school for playing in a weak conference.
Several media outlets had reported that the Independence Bowl invited Louisiana Tech, but athletic director Bruce Van De Velde turned it down, fearing a possible match-up with Louisiana-Monroe with bragging rights on the line.
These initial reports angered many Louisiana Tech fans including Karl Malone, but Van De Velde said it wasn’t true, Yahoo! Sports noted .
“Contrary to media reports, at no time did I, our head coach or a member of our administration turn down an official invitation to any bowl game,” Van De Velde said in the statement. “In consultation with our coach and our university president, we asked Independence Bowl officials for more time to make a decision until we could properly consider all postseason options that were available to Louisiana Tech. Unfortunately, we were not afforded that time and the decision was made to rescind the offer.”
Karl Malone thought the incident was a good chance to for the school to get back to its roots.
“TechNation what I have been saying for a long time,start hiring former tech athletes to get the pride back into The university and athletics,” tweeted Karl Malone, himself a former star athlete at Louisiana Tech.
