Mission9

Let's leave that to the EZU fans. They are the ones for years who have pleaded that they belong in the SEC.

Nov 4 at Memphis. Be there. Big sign: "Memphis will destroy us!!!"

Well, they have beaten FSU as many times as USF has.

Coastal's field is also an odd one but at least is almost green.

I think we need to schedule road games at Boise and at Eastern Washington back to back.

When I have tried to point out that almost all of the expansion is about acquiring name brands which the casual fan recognizes, I have tried to leave out something which is more to the point. If you think that Stanford and Cal should be in a major conference, I cannot argue with that since they have been in one my entire life. When you start talking about "society" and such, I will tell you what that means. They do not want elite schools left behind with the riff raff. The alignment is a process to weed out the undesirables.

Ok, objectively speaking, I cannot disagree. Still, if there could be one positive in all of this it could be ridding ourselves of the miscreants to the east as well as EZU. There is a reason some on here posted "ECU=UCF" numerous times.

True, and they also don't understand we can still have strong opinions. Having a rational point of view is often misunderstood.

I knew last season was over when it was 28-0 before the seats were even warm and the Trappist beer and gin buzz was gone.

I know this wasn't directed at me personally but I would argue some of us don't fall within those parameters either. I will skip over my bemusement of the abject failure of the program and contempt for those running the show the last few years since we have moved forward with a replacement at the helm. The other issue, being left out of realignment, I can be unhappy about what is going on but find it hard to rationalize that USF could have done anything to beat out the schools which got the callup, with one exception. For the sake of decency I will not mention that one university. In being angry about not being in place of the one exception, we should realize there really is no contesting the fact that we have made multiple errors beginning in 2010 which snowballed into what we have now. Any choices made in the future of the program should only be made with USF, USF alumni, and USF fans interest and not be made to please the local media (whose influence is depreciating much to my joy).

I appreciate this at it gives a little perspective. I will in turn give you a little perspective of those who were around when USF football was just an idea. In ye olden days, when I went to USF I sometimes would pass on my way to and from classes a table set up with a football on it with some students trying to drum up support. I usually was coming from or going back to work so I never stopped by. You might ask why and I will give you another perspective. At that time, Miami was the dominant program in all of college football. FSU was always right there in the top 5 but would always have something happen to keep them from winning it all (wide right?). Florida was still pre-coach Spurrier and a good but not great team. Still, Florida easily had the most fans and they were the epitome of "paper champions". Never did a **** thing yet walked around like they were superior to all. There were plenty walking around campus in Florida gear at any given time. Anyway, I was trying to reason how an upstart USF program could even compete with that. If you wonder why some of us old guys are not melting down over all of this, keep in mind we are not happy but we lived through a time when any kind of USF football seemed out of reach.

I guess it is how you look at it. USF actually went past SMU in 2005. SMU had been previously in the SWC and had an argument to be champs in 81 and 82 before briefly being forced to shut down. Shut down for things schools like Alabama and USC did on a regular basis yet received no scrutiny.

If SMU gets in, that leaves Rice as the only team from the old Southwest Conference left out.

Not sure. I guess it is part of living in a big city as opposed to a small town.

I thought, and still do, that Skip thrives when he has the total support of the fans. ECU fans are annoying but they are all in for their team. USF has a lot of cynical fans which have to see the results first and still even some good results are not enough. I think it was culture shock for him.

Not saying you are wrong but I know what he is talking about. They were the most hated team by SEC fans for awhile because they were relentless about getting their name out there. They challenged the idea that even the last place SEC team was better than anyone else and SEC fanboys despised them for it. I knew it was bad when I happened to tune in to the Dave Ramsey show and he mentioned them to a Florida caller as an affordable option for her staying out of debt. I knew all of their relentless, in your face comments had made an impact (right or wrong).

I got a spy report that Bull Matrix was in Vegas to place a bet on USF getting into the ACC and did a parlay on USF covering. All of that money on the USF side made the sports book have to adjust the line.

Western Kentucky has been a solid program for most of their history so my following statement is not intended to reflect poorly on them: The fact that we would relish the victory as opposed to expecting it tells us just how far Scott crushed this program into oblivion.

You knew thinking there was actually a point where we could have a concensus agreement on here is asking a lot. No one was more critical of the Skip hire than myself from beginning to end. Still, even I concede that the team was much better under ol Skip. It is not even close.

A lot of people think that it is only about winning. Winning is an important piece of the pie in that it generates fan interest and a greater following. It is the one thing a program can control, if you will. Still, if it were merely about winning, Syracuse would not have been chosen over USF given that USF had beaten them 6 out of 8 (now 8 out of 10) times and had better seasons at the end of the Big East. Still, no one with a rational point of view would think USF would be chosen over Syracuse. Syracuse with a recognizable name brand and where a lot of the guys on the major networks went to school. Some might think my points are to be critical of USF or think USF should not aspire to move up. Quite the contrary. I despise the system which has basically left out a great number of schools including USF which has shown it can draw in the 40 to 50k range when in a bigger conference. I long quit watching ESPN college football shows as I no longer have to hear "history and tradition" or "body of work" which basically was another way of telling USF (and others in the same situation) "you don't belong and we will make sure you are left out".

Louisville and Cincinnati had been around awhile and had played a lot of the bigger eastern teams over the years. Not to mention, they have name brands in basketball which people recognize. I never thought USF would move up before them.

True. It is hard to logically argue that USF would have beaten out any of the teams which have been promoted since the breakup of the Big East. Even if a new stadium had been built 10 or so years ago.

You are totally missing the point. My point was that USF was never a shoe in to move up when there was talk of 4 - 16 team conferences. While the Big East was part of the BCS and certainly was on par with at least a couple of the other BCS conferences, the powers that be were overly critical of it. Guess which team was the new one to the club and probably the one they had most in mind while being critical? Oh, and I don't watch that much college football like a lot on here but I only recall the "Power" designation being used on a regular basis once the BCS and Big East were over. You failed to answer my question.

You're right about that. I think we've had 4 overall winning seasons out of ten. It does seem illogical to trash a conference with that type of ineptitude. Wanting to move up is fine but trashing teams you can't beat is a bad look.