GarySJ

What else is there at SLU?

Nobody really. It's pretty weak in baseball. Miami didn't even play in it. They were an independent instead. C-USA will actually be a much better baseball league than the Big East, with Tulane, Rice, UCF and Houston.

Happy, because I have faith in USF's leadership to make the right decision.

This is all I'll say about the Woolard hire... While I liked Hollis and Oliver, as most people here did, I support USF's decision to go with Woolard. President Genshaft et al have more information than we do, met with the candidates personally, and had a highly respected consulting firm assisting them. I trust their judgment.

I see your point, but I'd just as soon USF football didn't try to emulate the Detroit Lions. ;D

A couple random comments... Re: The likelihood of high heat: The Bama fiasco aside, am I the only one who remembers that humid day in Pittsburgh in 2001? When it was the Panthers who couldn't deal with the conditions? The psychological ploy by Coach Leavitt of NOT using the cool zone fans on the USF side when the Pitt players were taking turns lining up in front of them? I say, let it burn. Here's to 90 degrees and 90 percent. Re: the partial conflict with the big FSU game: I still think this will hurt walkup sales, and that we should endeavor to avoid conflicts with big FSU/UF games. But MikeG is right -- there are a lot of variables involved and we don't know what the effect of all of them will be. Some will probably cancel each other out. This is the biggest home game to date, and definitely the biggest opener since Kentucky Wesleyan. So let's just see what happens. I'm sure the turnout will be fine.

Great. Score another victory for political correctness. God knows it was just soooooooo sexist to refer to the male teams as "men" and the female teams as "women." The question is, when will Syracuse be forced to drop the name "Orange" because it's racist to imply that one color is better than another?

Never mind, I read it wrong. What they're saying is that the value of the ACC TV deal went from $23.4M per year for nine schools under the old deal, to $37M a year for twelve schools under the new deal. $23.4M / 9 = $2.6M per school $37M / 12 = $3.083 per school So the ACC went to all this trouble to gain a measly $500K per school per year? Maybe $1.2M when you add in championship game revenue and the JP contract? These are schools with athletic budgets in the area of $35-$45M. Was it really worth it? Especially when you consider that the TV deal for men's basketball will be signicantly devalued, and that NCAA tournament revenue will be divided 12 ways instead of 9?

Umm... $258 million divided by 12 schools comes to $21.5 million per school, not $37 million.

You know, that's one thing I don't think we'll ever have to worry about.

The conflict, Mike, is that the casual local football fans (which still make up a significant segment of USF FB's fan base) will stay home and watch FSU-UM on TV rather than come to RJS. Would you attend a local event of minor interest to you from 4-7 if USF was on TV starting at 8? Didn't think so. USF football should avoid conflicting with UF/FSU games whenever possible. (Not so much UM, because they have no actual fan base.) It may not have been avoidable in this case, but it still will hurt attendance.

Better idea: schedule USF football games such that they do not conflict with major in-state football games.

Well, I've never heard of a guy being ruled academically ineligible by the NCAA for not having made 75% progress towards a degree. In fact I've NEVER heard of the NCAA censuring a school or player over their progress towards a degree. AFAIK the NCAA only gets involved in cases of academic fraud, and entrance-test scores. I criticize this decision by the NCAA because it's a short-sighted, unenforceable attempt to legislate morality. It's easy to say "well, it's nice that the NCAA is making kids graduate," but in the real world it just doesn't work. For one thing, it's not the NCAA's job. The NCAA is a governing body for athletics, not a guidance counselor or registration office. For another thing, the NCAA doesn't have the resources. They can't compare the transcripts of 90,000 student-athletes to the hundreds of degree tracks available at over 1,000 different universities. Think about how inefficient the NCAA is when it comes to certifying for initial eligibility. And all that involves is getting a letter from Scholastic Testing Services in Princeton, New Jersey with a number written on it, and a transcript from the player's high school with another number written on it, and comparing the two to the established sliding scale minimum. And that can take WEEKS, even if you're fully qualified. Ask Greg Walls. And to think they're going to review the transcript of every student-athlete in all three divisions at least once a year, and decide who does and doesn't meet the arbitrary standard of "20 percent progress"? Then there's the issue of how you define "20 percent progress." Is it a number of classes? A number of hours? What if the border of 20 percent ends up representing "half a class"? What if the player's major is undecided? Will this rule punish student-athletes who simply decide to change degree tracks, and temporarily find themselves behind in meeting requirements? What will stop a player from changing majors from a degree track he doesn't have 20% of to one he does, just to stay eligible? What will prevent coaches from designing "degree programs" that meet these requirements but don't actually get the player closer to graduation? What about student-athletes who have to take remedial classes as freshmen (which a LOT of college-bound kids have to do these days)? There are even more logistic problems with this plan, but I think that makes the point. This is just another short-sighted, well-intentioned piece of legislation that will become nothing more than a mechanism for harassment as it is selectively enforced. I can't wait for the first news article telling us that Bucknell's second-string discus thrower was suspended for making only 19% progress towards a degree. Meanwhile, no one ever seems to get suspended from Bob Huggins' basketball team, or from the wide receiver corps at the University of Tennessee.

Yeah, if these are the two finalists I have to think that Oliver will be the choice. I liked Hollis a lot for his ideas and marketing wizardry. But I liked all three of the original candidates and I'm sure whoever we hire will be great. (I haven't read up on Woolard.) BTW who is Washington State's current associate AD? It seems to be a prerequisite to be a finalist for the USF AD job.

Greg Walls is on the training camp roster of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. No photo yet but a brief bio: http://www.ticats.com/index.php?module=PostWrap&page=GregWalls Joe Morgan spent the 2003 season playing special teams for Winnipeg. He was 4th on the team in special teams tackles. He was born in Ontario so he qualifies as a "non-import" player. His bio: http://www.bluebombers.com/index/Morgan_Joe No other Bulls are currently on any CFL rosters per cfl.ca. LaFann Williams played briefly with Calgary, and Demetrious Woods (remember him?) went to camp with Montreal a couple times.

The C-USA invite. Because without it, we would never have gotten the Big East invite.

Well, it was a link related to the story of UTEP joining, so it was appropriate for them to list the "new" membership. But it was still a little eerie to see a map of C-USA without USF on it. It's like taking one last look around your former, now empty apartment before you move out.

http://www.conferenceusa.com/releases/attachments/2004430165242631495934-3.pdf I guess we're really gone now.

Absolutely. He attempted to handle the complaint within his own department -- which is EXACTLY what university policy at the time dictated. The front office fired Griffin for it and called their own policies inadequate, without ever mentioning that Griffin's actions were in accordance with the policies. All I wanted to say is that we shouldn't be concerned about this "scandal". It's quite easy for a person to be made a scapegoat through no fault of his own, and end up carrying an unfair stigma. Spetman could end up being a real gem. Apparently we'll find out one way or the other, as several schools are interested in him. I'm sure he'll be an AD somewhere next season. That I can agree with. Both Griffin and Selmon had their strong and weak suits. We need a guy who can provide Griffin's leadership and vision, as well as Selmon's sense for fundraising and marketing the program. Fortunately, I think we have an excellent pool of finalists to choose from.

Hmm... this sounds oddly familiar, somehow.

So he gets to play in Conference USA after all. Whooptidoo.

This is absolutely imbecilic. How the hell do you determine what exactly constitutes "20% progress" towards a degree? Especially when every school has its own degree track and calendar system? This is just another knee-jerk, unenforceable, NCAA mandate that's going to be off the books in two years.

Yeah, and that was when there were only 26 teams and the draft was 17 rounds long.

Well, if I went 8-4 every year and got offered a job where the last guy got fired for going 9-3, I wouldn't take it either.

Bingo.