Bobcat99

Well, that's kind of my point about the powers that be having no idea how to market a college football team. They're treating us like we're the Bucs, when we're completely different in terms of fan interest and marketing. IT. LOOKS. AWFUL on television and makes for a cavernous feeling if you're anywhere other than the student section. You build fan loyalty (and thus, money) by showing your own loyalty to the people who are your biggest supporters -- and by "support," i mean presence.

I still think the gameday experience is pretty awful, but it was fun regardless. It makes me pretty miserable to see so many empty seats down at the field level. You just wouldn't see that at any other stadium in the country. We've sold far too many of those seats to corporate interests who will never fill them. Having empty seats near the field but a packed house the next section up -- looked like a regular season NBA game. The PA music makes me want to go on a stab-a-thon in the pressbox. Again, never in my life have I had to deal with such nonsense at a college football game. Aughghgh.

My only regret is that I arrived in Tampa too late to see Death Row in action myself. Perhaps I will witness a revival in my day. Zombies!

I got into this in class the other day. I started getting really riled up until I was basically yelling about supporting the home team, supporting YOUR ALMA MATER, and my students were looking at me as if to say, is it too late to drop? Look, we have the same problem at Ohio, just to a lesser degree, as people wearing OSU items on campus regularly get beatdowns. MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE: PUNCH A GATOR FAN IN THE FACE.

Every Steve & Barry's pretty much has the same apparel from the same teams. The one in Cleveland has the same teams as ours -- see how many Eastern Michigan shirts we have? It's kind of based on what licenses they can get cheaply and which sweatshop is pumping products out the fastest. Yeah, I said sweatshop. In fact, the Kenyan and Swailandean shops that make Steve & Barry's products make regular sweatshops look like a gravy train.

...while parking is free at Tropicana Field this year, and has been accompanied by a 28% increase in attendance. They don't get it. They just don't get it. They have no idea what the college football experience ought to be like, and until they learn, we'll never have the support we deserve. Why should I pay ten bucks to have a substandard, overregulated tailgate experience?

Watch it, Beano.

This list is completely wrong and almost looks like someone just guessed at where schools should be. As much as it makes me sick, the fact that Ohio State items can be seen in nearly every household in Ohio, not to mention 25,000 license plates, has me pretty sure that they're missing a whole bunch of universities on that list. I'm pretty sure more University of Iowa, WVU... the list could go on... is sold than most of the schools on that list.

Technically, the NCAA requires a one-year ban from competition for any player found to be using a banned substance. Read here to see the list. Marijuana is on the list, which is why Leavitt can't comment on players busted for drugs -- because we'd have to report it to the NCAA. For what it's worth, the NCAA commission on drug policy has recommended decreasing the penalty for street drugs to half its current amount, but the point stands that the NCAA bans a player for one year if he or she is caught using any of the banned substances. And that's why you'll hear "violation of team rules" instead of "marijuana."

Why do these threads keep popping up? "My uncle's brother-in-law's boss told me..." -- get a brain, people. USF is strapped for cash. Have you not noticed the cutbacks from the state funding system? The hiring freezes? Where do you think we're going to get the tens upon tens of millions of dollars to purchase a mall?

Collegefootballtalk has no idea what they're talking about. The attendance rule was eliminated by the NCAA in January, 2005. This thread is pretty much moot. That having been said, the above-mentioned programs do need to get in gear to boost attendance.

Load of crap. You stop buying or listening to stuff where the money you spend goes back to something you don't agree with and you'll end up Amish ...Get off the frigging high horses and stop acting like the Church Lady. I'm sorry you feel being opposed to USF's indirectly funding child **** is being on a "high horse."

We have a fantastic community college system here. We don't need to taint it by turning them into NCAA-prep factories. NCAA clearinghouse qualification guidelines are so low, that I frankly don't want to suffer through teaching someone who didn't meet them. At that point, you're talking about teaching college-level work to someone who is functionally illiterate.

Thanks, E.T. This isn't a matter of the merits of the song. It's the fact that every time it is publicly performed, royalties filter from his publishing company (BMI) to him, a quarter at a time, every time the song is played or performed, anywhere. This is a guy who has been banned from Cuba and Cambodia, for crying out loud. His sole source of income is royalties, and he takes that money to pay off his victims' families: <i>Disgraced former glam rock king Gary Glitter has paid $2,000 (about 82,000 baht) each to the families of two Vietnamese girls, ages 11 and 12, who had accused him of coercing them into sex, police and his lawyer said today. The lawyer said authorities will not charge Glitter with ****, meaning he will not face the death penalty.</i> We have a moral imperative to support ending the public performance of his music not only at our sports venues, but on the radio and every other locale where he might earn the money with which he commits his atrocities.

Being from Ohio doesn't make anyone a hillbilly..just the ones who deside to stay ;D...just poking fun I guess thats why I chose USF over Bowling Green State U A. Anyone from Florida calling someone from Ohio a hillbilly is a freakin' joke. I lived in the most redneckian of redneck areas in Ohio, and yet people there are far more advanced than nearly everyone I have met since moving here two years ago. B. BGSU is a solid school. I'd probably say it's a better school than USF. Nightlife leaves a bit less to offer... a lot less.

This might be the best option, kind of like signing a one-game series with many different teams. Is it the best option? Yes. Do I think it will happen? No. The main problem is that smaller-conference teams, if they're going into a guarantee game, want much more money than the Big East can provide. If OU, for example, is going to play BCS conference teams, we're going to get a PAYDAY (which is exactly what we're getting from teams like Missouri and Illinois). Cincinnati or USF or Louisville can't offer the kind of money a Big 10 team can, and so they're probably not going to go for the deal. Sad to say, but the Big East's status as "big time" is contingent not upon our won-loss records but on our attendance. That's what will dictate how much we can pay for guarantee games.

Aris Williams is going to be awesome, you guys just wait.

You're kidding, right? How did I miss this? You don't see Acheans roaming the sidelines of USC games. How stupid.

You might be tilting at a windmill with this one - since Rock & Roll Part II is a part of almost every sport (pro and college). Except it's not. The NFL banned it this year.

At OU, if you have a student ticket, you have to show your ID at the door when you enter. Simple enough and no reason why they couldn't do it here, too. As for Rock & Roll Part II, I was more referring to the playing of the song over the PA system, but either way, USF SHOULD NOT BE PERFORMING OR PLAYING THE MUSIC OF A MAN CONVICTED OF CHILD **** SO MANY TIMES HE HAS BEEN KICKED OUT OF THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES: a) Britain Cuba c) Cambodia

Geez, where to start? I've been to college football games at some of the great stadia in America: Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, The Swamp, and the Liberty Bowl. I've also been to places like Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Akron, Miami, and Indiana. For the most part, the college football experience is the same wherever you go. The crowds may differ in size, the bands may have more or less prestige, but you pretty much know what you're getting. Then you have USF. I realize we have had football a far shorter period of time than any of the above schools. However, it does not excuse the myriad football anomalies such as: Piped-in music at the expense of the band (this is unbelievably hokey) Tailgating restrictions (I do not know of ANY school -- even Division IIIs -- that restrict you so heavily on when you can arrive and what you can do once you get there) Oversponsorship (I just returned from the World Series of Poker Presented By Milwaukee's Best Light. Our McDonald's First Downs and Pepsi Field Goals and Turnover Brought To You By Hot Pockets reek of a lack of tradition) The video introductions (again, you do not see this at other schools. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE LAME AND FEEL STAGED. This isn't the WWF.) Student tix only available onsite (OU solved this problem over ten years ago... make tickets available oncampus 7 days before the game and a whole lot of your problems disappear) Thinking we're bigger than we are britches-wise with donor seating (our games look like the NBA -- empty corporate seating closest to the action, completely ruining the ability to build a strong atmosphere) And yet you know what my biggest problem with the fan experience at USF games is? The fact WE STILL PLAY ROCK & ROLL PART TWO AT GAMES. I expect we won't be playing it this year, considering how the NFL has banned it, but we played it all through the basketball season. Every time we play that song, Gary Glitter makes money. And you know what he does with that money? He pays off the families of the children he *****. Royalties from his song are his only source of income. If anyone in their right mind has a clue, they'll quit playing his song NOW.

it tastes REALLY bad.

Looking forward to a good performance from Andre and also former Bobcat Dion Byrum...

I am pretty close to calling us renegade, yeah. I saw the "glory" days of Marshall's complete lack of institutional control, and we're pushing that threshold. It's pretty clear our coaching staff has zero interest in the character or academic ability of our recruits. And then they arrive on campus and expect those of us teaching them to bend over backwards when they are completely incapable of even the most basic academic achievement at the college level (note: I am not referring to any student-athletes I have had personally -- I've only had one football player and he was great but we have a LOT of problems in the department with football players) .. eghghhg I'm just going to end this rant. If all you care about is winning, I don't really want you as a USF fan.

The "human" Rocky never retires, that's the nature of mascots. Look, folks, I'm pretty sure we're beating a dead horse here. The athletic department's decided the name is Rocky II. I think a better topic for debate is the nature of our mascot in general... I mean, Brahmans aren't the most attractive animal, and we'd better hope Rocky II gets bulked up big time so we aren't stuck running around with an oversized goat.