ORONO – Last week, the University of Maine cheerleaders traveled to Louisiana with the Black Bears on the team charter, checked out the local flavor, and even got in a rare December swim at the hotel pool.

As of Wednesday’s pep rally, cheerleaders were under the impression that they wouldn’t make the trip to Saturday’s second-round NCAA Division I-AA tournament game against the University of Northern Iowa due to cost considerations.

But just after the rally broke up, athletic director Sue Tyler huddled briefly with senior assistant athletic director Paul Bubb, then said at least some of the cheerleaders would be heading to Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The band, however, is not so lucky.

“We’d love to take the band, but the band was going to cost us nearly $85,000,” Tyler said, pointing out that the band isn’t under her purview as athletic director.

“Somebody was looking into trying to finance the band [trip],” Tyler said. “I’d love to have the band there. I’d love to have the whole Marketplace [the site of Wednesday’s pep rally] there. But it’s straight dollars and cents, and how much you can afford to go into the hole for that situation.”

Tyler said the NCAA essentially ends up paying for a substantial part of a school’s contingent to travel: about 80 people. Players, coaches, trainers, managers, and a few senior administrators can easily reach that number.

After that, the NCAA charges UMaine for the seats on the plane, and if the school decided to house an entire band, that bill wouldn’t be reimbursed, either.

“The UMass athletic director told me that it cost them about a half a million dollars to win the national championship [in 1998],” Tyler said, pointing out that UMass took a band on nearly every trip.

“They lost a lot of money on that. And we just can’t. It’s a financial decision,” Tyler said.

Cusano, Lazarski on the mend

The status of two Black Bears who play key roles is still up in the air, but coach Jack Cosgrove was cautiously optimistic Wednesday.

Ben Lazarski, a freshman center, and David Cusano, a junior strong safety, each sprained a knee during Saturday’s win over McNeese State.

“They’re both getting better,” Cosgrove said. “Ben’s a little ahead of David right now. We’re optimistic in both cases. We’ve got three more days, so there’s a lot of time, and they’ve made progress each and every day.”

Cosgrove was able to plug those holes on Saturday – Jarrod Gomes replaced Cusano while Mike Leconte moved from guard to Lazarski’s center spot and John Kmety came off the bench to play guard – but he’d obviously love to have his starters back against Northern Iowa.

And one thing is certain: Any decision will be a game-day one.

“They’ll be on the trip with us,” Cosgrove said. “We may find out game day that maybe they can’t go. But they’ll be on the trip with us because they’re starters and they make us a better football team.”

More bulletin-board fodder

When football teams enter the postseason, they’re on the constant lookout for items that might provide a bit of added motivation.

The Black Bears found some before the McNeese State game when coach Mark Farley was quoted as saying he liked his team’s tourney draw, and a Cowboy player nearly guaranteed a win in a broadcast interview.

On Wednesday, senior Justin Davis shared some more material that had made its way to the Black Bears’ bulletin board this week.

On the Northern Iowa Web site, fans are asked to vote on their choice to win the I-AA national championship.

Six of the eight teams still playing are listed. Maine and Sam Houston State weren’t.

The Black Bears have three bulletin boards in their locker room: One for the offense, one for the defense, and one for miscellaneous items.

“That made it on all three of them,” Davis said.

Davis told the pep-rally crowd that the last team to slight the Black Bears had finished its season.

“McNeese kind of did the same thing,” Davis said. “I think they remember us.”

Davis did admit that even if his team had made it onto the poll, they probably wouldn’t have fared too well.

“I wouldn’t expect us to get any votes from the Northern Iowa site, but you’d think they’d have our school up there,” he said with a chuckle. “They didn’t.”

Still, Davis said the Bears are almost enjoying their relative lack of notoriety.

“I guess we’re the underdogs. We like that. We like that role,” Davis said.