Eric_Soncrant

The USF Women's Basketball team host Florida in a first round WNIT game this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the SunDome. Tickets are $10 for lower level center court (section D1) and courtside seating. All other seats are only $7. Please join us in cheering on our Bulls as they look to make a run of their own in post-season play. You can call 1-800-GoBulls to order your tickets. Go Bulls! Eric

Hey Everyone: It is currently not looking good for a watch party tonight. I just found out the game is only on Brighthouse 47 and is not part of the ESPN Full Court Package. My apologies. I'm still trying to put something together and if we are able to will let you now ASAP. Thanks. Eric

I'll update tomorrow but the semifinals are both C-USA network games which means it can be picked up by local stations. As soon as I here confirmation as to where it can be watched, I'll try and let you all know. Eric

Greetings all from Memphis: For those of you interested in making the trip up, make sure you give Mike Lewis, Amabel Aqui, or myself a call for tickets. All though you may be able to buy tickets on the street, keep in mind Memphis is still in the tournament and tickets will probably be scarce. We still have some available but need to know asap. We will be holding another watch party at the Clubhouse tomorrow (Friday) for the semifinal versus memphis. Our game begins at 7 p.m. Tampa time. If you need help with any travel arrangement, hotel accomodations, or game tickets here is my cell phone (813) 468-0303. I'll answer unless I'm sound asleep and don't hear it. Hope to see alot of you up here as we continue to try to make history. GO BULLS! Eric

That's the first I've heard of our band not traveling. Although I'm not involved with those discussions, everything I've heard has indicated that the band and cheerleaders will be making the trip to Miami. Subject to change. That will be a great thing to bring up though at our Around the Horns event down in Miami this June. Eric

We will have plenty of tickets for the all of our away games. Now that the schedule is finalized, we can really dig in and start putting our travel packages together. We get a couple thousand tickets for each game. We do expect better attendance at away games for a couple of reasons. More marque opponents and the strong northeastern alumni base that is excited about our move to the Big East. We certainly have more alumni in Philadelphia, D.C., or New York than we have in Hattiesburg ;D! If you are a Bulls Club donor you'll get the travel information in the mail. Otherwise once it's finalized I'll try and remember to post the information on here so those of you that aren't donors (shame on you) can get the information as well. Go Bulls! Eric

I have been assured that in some way, shape or form the Clubhouse will have the ability to put it on television. Hopefully I will have some confirmation before leaving for Memphis on which station it will be broadcast. Wooly, unfortunately I won't be there but fortunately I'll be in Memphis cheering on our team. I'll keep you posted. Eric

Hey everyone: Bear with me a bit on this as the details are still being formed, but I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible. Our first round conference tournament game will be televised on Wendesday night. It is being produced by ESPN Plus but we are not sure who will pick it up as of yet. The one thing we do know is that we will be holding a watch party for it at the Clubhouse Sports Cafe on Fowler Ave. The game begins at 9:30 p.m. local time. I'll keep you posted as more information is finalized but at least wanted you to be aware of this. Thanks and Go Bulls! Eric

If the USF Women's Basketball team wins their quarterfinal game Friday versus TCU, the Bulls Club will be hosting a watch party at the Clubhouse Sports Cafe on Fowler Ave.  The game would be televised at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Please join us to cheer on our team as they try to make their first NCAA tournament appearance.  Hope to see you all their.  Go Bulls! Eric

Actually, it is the Bulls Club that provides ice cream in the tailgate lot prior to each home game not the alumni association. But there are benefits to joining both. We encourage alumni when joining the Bulls Club to also join the Alumni Association. It is only $30 and they have some great programs they put together. You might be interested in the Young Alumni program they have which provides networking opportunities for recent grads. We work very closely with the Alumni Association, especially with road football games (they put on the pregame tailgates) and with our different regions. I think everyone will start seeing more colaboration between Athletics, the Alumni Association, and the rest of the University. Although joining the Alumni Association does not help you get season tickets, it will be similar to joining any other organization in that the more effort you put into helping and attending, the more you'll get out of it. Gene is a great resource to ask anything about the Alumni Association and can tell you more than I can but bottom line is, GET INVOLVED! Go Bulls! Eric

Join the USF Bulls Club in Memphis for the Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament March 9-12. The 11-game tournament features the league's most talented coaches and players as they compete in thrilling basketball action. When you're not watching hoops in the new FedExForum, a music-themed arena in the heart of downtown Memphis, be sure to see all the sites Memphis has to offer. Sign up now and don't miss out on a week that promises to be filled with non-stop action. Tournament Tickets: $160 For more information call the Bulls Club office at (813) 974-4223. For those of you that may be interested, we will have other things planned throughout the week that we are currently working on in case you don't want to watch all the other games. Keep in mind that this is our last C-USA basketball tournament, so there is a little sentimental value in attending this year. Hope to see some familiar faces in Memphis. Go Bulls! Eric

In case you haven't seen the information over on the main board, the Chicago Fire and Kansas City Wizards will be playing an exhibition match at the USF soccer field on Thursday, February 24th. Tickets are $10 with all proceeds benefitting the USF Soccer Program. For more information call 1-800-GoBulls or check out ticketmaster. You can also call me if you have questions. Thanks all. Go Bulls! Eric

Bullstriker: The men's coach is the one that has arranged for these events to take place. The women's coach has other projects he is working on to raise funds for their program. The golf tournament has actually become a limited partnership now between the two programs because Coach Fleck is focusing on these other fundraising projects. The women's team will receive some funds from the golf tournament based on their efforts. Please don't make it sound like we aren't doing anything to support our women's programs. Thanks. Go Bulls! Eric

It's not all countries, I believe just mostly the Central American countries and Carribbean countries.  Someone from Europe would not qualify for examble nor would someone from Canada.  I'll see if I can get the exact language and why it is that way just to be more clear. Eric Update: It is called the Latin-Caribbean initiative and it is actually a piece of state legislation open to all state universities. The NCAA considers it a tuition waver which helps some of our programs that do not have a full alotment of scholarships. For instance let's take men's soccer. They can offer a student athlete from Trinidad and Tobago a scholarship to come play and study here. It will only count as roughly a half scholarship because the NCAA will use the out of country dollar figure (approx. $22,500) as the cost of the scholarship. We are paying the in-state tuition (roughly $11,000) to the univeristy. The rest is considered a waiver and not a scholarship thus only counting as 47 percent of a full ride. Hope that clarifies the rule. There are apparently agreements with several other countries as well with different policies. Who said message boards can't be educational ! Let me know if you have any questions. Eric

Not that this has to do with recruiting but it does to men's soccer.  You can help support the men's soccer program two ways in the upcoming weeks. First, come to the MLS match between the Chicago Fire and KC Wizards on Thursday, Feb. 24th. All proceeds from ticket sales go to USF men's soccer. Tickets are $10 and can be ordered through the Sundome Ticket office or Ticketmaster. Then on March 25th at the Claw, play in the Inaugural USF Men's Soccer Golf Classic. It only costs $175 per person to play or put a team in for $600. If you are interested, please shoot me an email and I'll send you the information. Thanks everyone. Eric

Also just from an informational standpoint is that in many cases, south american student athletes cost the athletic department the same as an in-state student athlete due to waivers. So in reality, it costs many of our programs less to have a foreign student athlete than say one from Texas. Eric

Nice job Velcro. That is correct. Anyone that contributes $1,000 or more can purchase up to 8 football season tickets in an appropriate section. $500 donors can purchase up to 6, and herd/bullseye donors can purchase up to 4 season tickets. Additionally, for the $1,000 donors and up, each one of their season tickets will have club access. Renewals are going out this week so make sure if you are looking to change your seats for any reason you check the box on your renewal form to indicate you'd like to move or purchase additional. You will then get a call in a month or so from our ticket sales department and they will try and accomodate your requests. Go Bulls! Eric

Love all the questions today. To answer the end zone seating question, as of right now there is no donation required to sit in sections 118-132 and 226-231. Season tickets can be purchased in these sections although some of the sections may change as we move to the Big East (visiting team seats, visiting band, etc.). However, even if you prefer those seats and purchase tickets their, donating to the Bulls Club is a noble thing to do and is appreciated by the entire staff ;D. Keep in mind that club access is based on donation and not by seat location so it is possible to have endzone season tickets, make the $1,000 annual contribution to the Bulls Club and go to the air conditioning at halftime or in between quarters. Completely up to the individual. Thanks everyone. Eric

Hello: Let me try and answer everyone's questions: The facility gift is completely separate from the annual Bulls Club contribution and can not be counted towards your seating benefits for football and basketball. The reasoning behind that is 75 percent of people would then take their annual gift for football tickets and apply it to the facility. That's great for the facility but bad for our operating budget. Velcrogrip is correct in his reasoning for why section 233 and 238 as well as 110 and 111 having different donor levels. When we set it up, our main goal was to have each section represent one donor level. If you remember the original donor seating chart, you could potentially have a varsity donor sitting right next to a bullseye donor in the same section. We just wanted to make it clear where the donor levels where. The result was have comparable sections with different giving levels. I think that answers all the questions. If not let me know. Thanks guys. Eric

Hey Guys: Sorry for the delay. I am having difficulty pasting the diagram onto here for some reason. I can email it to you in an attachment if you send me your address. As for the contribution levels, you are locked in to your current giving level until you decide to move or add seats. If you want to move to a new section, the contribution will be based on the new seating chart. Sorry I can't be of more help but email me at soncrant@admin.usf.edu and I'll send it. I will also get it up on www.GoUSFBulls.com today. I thought it was already up there. Thanks again. Eric

Great job guys. This is how traditions get started. A few people getting together and start something. Next time as we talked about hopefully the Bulls Club can become a bigger part of it and make 30 people. Hopefully we have an opportunity like this each year. Thanks for your continued loyal and spirited support. Go Bulls! Eric

Not a joke E.T. ;D We can certainly use everyone's support. No matter how small a gift you think it might be, it will make a big difference as we move to the Big East. Thanks everyone that is already a member of the Bulls Club. Eric

The Bulls Club will be hosting a watch party for the women's basketball game versus DePaul at the Clubhouse Sports Cafe this Sunday. The game begins at 3 p.m. and is being televised live on Fox Sports Chicago. Bigbull will be hosting this event for us so if you'd like to meet him in person, make sure to come out. Thanks everyone. Go Bulls! Eric

No wristbands. They have requested now that we use the area outside of Entry 2, which is not used for basketball games. It is a cemented area where they use to put up the Jr. Bulls inflatable. You can park in the lot right outside that area. Looking forward to it. Eric

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It's a lot of fun working for USF Athletics. ChiTown Bull, it's not generally just stop by but if you email me or call me and set up a time, I'm generally going to be available. Keep in mind you will get my pitch on donating to the facility as well ! Come's with the tour. Thanks again everyone. Go Bulls! Eric