Doc

There is an "official" secondary resale site called FlashSeats that is linked from the NCAA website. It's a pretty cumbersome setup I haven't used before. However, they have a decent selection for some sessions that are reasonably priced. Looks like you buy the ticket online, then they swipe your credit card at the gate to get in. I've upgraded my seats for the USF session, and so hope it's legit. Anyone used this service before?

USF claims they don't get a ticket allotment. Had to buy mine from the secondary market as, thanks to the delay, most are now sold out from the official website. Don't have tickets for all the games yet -- not very happy with this mess... I will, however, be making the trip for Thursday morning, and stay until we're out!

The games aren't sold out, at least not yet. There are still tickets available on the NCAA softball website, but only for the outfield. However, I am still waiting to hear back from our athletics dept as I would expect the seats behind the dugouts and home plate are reserved for the traveling parties with each school.

Woolard deserves a solid A. In order to improve our brand (and thereby land in a strong football conference, since that is $eemingly all that matter$), South Florida needs to become more of a household name. How do you get that? I suppose if your school found itself in the next 2-3 national championship football games and actually won (winning those "lesser" BCS bowls doesn't seem to matter anymore) you might turn some heads (although many would cry "fluke" and await the day you're no longer on top and be quickly forgotten). Or, you can be like just about all those strong brands they flash on that Capital One College Cup commercial, or whatever it's called, and earn a reputation for all-around athletic excellence (many of those schools haven't done anything in football for decades). That means building quality facilities, competitiveness in those "olympic sports," and exposure on a national level. We are getting very close to that, and the day is not too far away that "South Florida" can appear on those lists and nobody would do a double-take. It would be expected. Brand name schools are supposed to win at softball, or volleyball, or soccer, or track. I know there is a chicken/egg argument to be made here, but regarding what is under Woolard's control, I believe that he has taken an approach that will give us the best possible chance of entering and remaining in the national consciousness, and that is a far cry from the not-too-distant days of having to explain who "South Florida" is everytime the name comes up.

...and as glorious as our softball atmosphere appeared on TV, the showing for baseball in Clearwater has left my face red with embarrassment and shame. They really need to move it to a venue where the home team fans can at least manage a better effort for the championship game in which their team is participating.

Agreed. The turnout looked (and sounded) awesome on TV. The stadium, especially with the night shots in Game 1, is a real gem. Viewers have been left with a very positive impression of USF, especially for those who might have known little else about the school.

I'll be making the trip from St. Louis. Not sure yet if I can be there from the start, but have already arranged for coverage at work for Sat/Sun and beyond if necessary. I'm still working on finding coverage for Thurs/Fri. What are your plans for purchasing tickets? It looks like they have designated sections for the participating schools within each section (like in BBall) but all I see on their websites (NCAA and USF) are random outfield seats. I have contacted USF today but have yet to hear back.

My recollection is that the loser-winner plays the winner-loser on the other side and then would have to beat the winner-winner on that other side twice (Alabama for example). This may not be exactly right, but there is some adjusting of the brackets.

Any word on how we can purchase tickets to the College World Series for the USF section?

Congratulations! Unbelievable accomplishment. Now let's go get a few more in OKC! See you there!

Thanks. I have seen that rule before, but it didn't look like anything unusual on the play.

What is up with these umps? I don't have the sound at the bar and so can't tell what just happened. Looked like she was HBP, but then called out???

That was her first loss in 33 games or so. Just short of the record.

Not sure about that strategy, but that's why Ken gets the big bucks. Let's hope it doesn't cost us down the stretch.

Way to work out of that jam. However, the officiation is laughable. Simply pathetic.

No, can't make it to the super-regionals. I'll be able to get to OKC for next Saturday should we beat Hofstra, but likely miss the Thurs/Fri CWS games.

Sheriff, I was supposed to be off the week and weekend of the CWS, but have since been pulled to cover due to someone else's mistake with the schedule. Not happy about that one bit. I did at least get someone who was nice enough to cover Sat-Sun (and Mon-Wed shouldn't be a problem if needed), but the openers on Thurs-Fri will be very difficult for me to make. Since no one is eliminated before Saturday, I'm still guaranteed to be able to see at least one USF game in person. If we beat Hofstra to get to the CWS but then lose to Ariz/Okla, we wouldn't even play on Friday.

I believe the seeding (or nonseeding) remains unchanged within the current brackets. In other words, we keep the "5-slot" designation no matter who else wins. Should all the favorites advance, we would face 4-Okla in the opening round and 1-Cal should we win. However, the losers bracket flips to the other "side" (2/3/6/7 seeds, etc) if I recall correctly.

A valiant effort by Syracuse, but they fall to Arizona St after forcing an elimination game. We are the lone BigEast team remaining, with UL and ND falling earlier today.

I agree that they are consolidating power and money into three games instead of five, and four schools (most likely 100% from the BigBoy conferences) rather than 10 schools (where 10-20% might be outsiders). Still, an undefeated outsider (ACC/BigEast) could get to the Top 4. Maybe easier than the current need to get to the Top 2 (I don't drool anymore over a Sugar Bowl appearance, and so the BCS "consolation prize" has been losing its luster). These bowls may still exist, although the payout will likely be less. If it's a championship playoff you want, the new system isn't really much different for USF's title hopes as long as we remain in a viable conference (ACC/BigEast merger)

I don't see the four big-boy conferences making an exclusive playoff system where only their members are eligible (anti-trust stuff would resurface). The Pac12 can't get to 16 without raiding the BigXII and this doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, so the 16x4 thing is off the table for now. Sure, I can see the BigXII taking up FSU/Clemson to get to 12, and maybe ND/BYU as well (they seem to be OK with letting schools keep separate sweet TV deals), while the SEC can get to 16 with VT/NCState and the B10 can get to 16 if they should take Duke/UNC/UMD/UVA as previously suggested. This would essentially remove the BBall/Academic "snobs" from the ACC and a merger with the old-guard BigEast FBall (plus Temple) would form a decent conference with plenty of BRAND names to help it survive in ALL sports. To be perfectly honest, the prior FBall setup was pretty much a sham, and the attraction of winning the BigEast just to play in a glorified bowl game few would watch (yeah, that includes the Orange and Sugar, anything that isn't for a national championship) was getting old. As it was, and as it will be, USF will have very little chance of playing for a national championship in football. I would be happy as long as we belong to a conference that remains visible (in ALL sports), and this means aligning ourselves with brand name schools, not just southern-based, mediocre football, no-name programs that most of our fans still wouldn't travel to see. Should we be so fortunate to join up with Miami/GT/WF/BC, and rejoin Pitt/Cuse, we would ensure visibility, viability, recruiting, and competitiveness in all of college athletics.

My understanding about a possible UVA/VT split is that both would have to remain in "viable" conferences, not necessarily the same one. VT to SEC and UVA to B10 would solve that.

Just looked at a photo of the Hofstra softball stadium. Not bad. They have lights and thus could potentially host (have hosted conference tourneys there). But they were the "bottom-seed" in their regional bracket and so the edge should undoubtedly go to USF when it comes to hosting.

I see this as being very plausable at some point down the road. Although, if you're less thrilled with the 16-team format (as I am), you can drop SMU/UH/UCF/Mem, and split North/South by moving UC/UL to the southern division.

I'm not so sure we would've kept WVU and TCU (their going to the BigXII is what in turn probably allowed them to reportedly bust up the ACC). Pitt might even be making the BigXII move with WVU as a unit. However, with Syracuse in the BigEast, and the shear numerical disadvantage the ACC would be staring at, I could definately see us plucking off the most desirables left behind (this would've kept the BBall alliance together, though, and so we might have been looking at a mega-BBall 20-team extravaganza like was proposed with KU/KSU/Mizzou joining with a BigXII meltdown 1-2 summers ago.