Joe

Actually BullDoug, the game is at Dolphins Stadium...

Haha, Sorry Jim, I just ran to the bottom and posted this, Worked late last night and still out of it.

Thanks

The FHSAA championships are the weekend of the 3rd at Dolphins Stadium. I agree, however, this game will be on an ESPN at 12 noon. It may be a big weekend for college football, but it will be slow. I can guarantee a 12 noon start though, ABC's baby is the new ACC championship and  a FSU v. Miami/VT game is looking to happen

Out of Conference: UCF. Duh, proxemity make this rivalry, further the pregame for the USF/UCF game was one of the most exciting I have ever been to. Then beating the crap out of them...even better! In all fairness UCF is gonna be a tough program next year they start so many young players...

In Conference: My heart says Louisville because they are gonna want to extract revenge like nonodys business next year... But I'm gonn have to say Pitt, we have played multiple times now and created a rivalry that is fun and one day could mean conference championships (Pitt has one of the top recuiting classes in the country right now)

Strange though a week before and after UCF many people said it wasn't a rivalry because teams hadn't played enough...Then we won 31-14 and we're clearly ahead of them and should quit on the rivalry. However, we POUNCE Louisville by more and now its a yearly rivalry that we should recognize.

Louisville is a very good team, but I LOVE the prospects with a UCF rivalry game. Its the only game I have seen the students of USF actually buzz about the week before the game...

Heard a rumor that they were gonna charge students 2 bucks a game is that true?

The writer has it wrong, the BCS reconsideration comes up in 2008...We do get to use Louisville's 2004 season though.

To add to that I've heard it a lot that the BE does not deserve a BCS bid and well they don't right NOW. If you have a 10-1 WVU the flames are dowsed.

However, IF...IF..if USF does run the table (which is a good chance) we have to make sure we bring enough people to the BCS game to make sure we warrant payout...Bringing 7,000 to the Fiesta, Sugar, or Orange Bowl will cause a HUGE upheaval in the ranks. That will not jusify the league's payout...

The Steelers just use lines in the endzone now...Like ND

Ugh, You gotta create the environment to make this come. Poor attendance to watch a game in the SUndome...Dispite what people say we're a "commutter school." Build something to keep the students around on the weekends and they WILL stay. Until then, like this weekend, the campus will be dead...

 I've lived in Tally and gainesville and been to both stadiums.  They suck (as did the Orange Bowl) compared to RayJay.

Well if you wanna go with an astetics standpoint...then DUH!

But they don't call Wrigley the best stadium in baseball because it's astetically pleasing. I would take the Swamp and Doak (and their energy level) over RJS and it's "environment" You cannot tell me with a straight face that a GREAT Bulls game has even close to the energy level of either stadium on a saturday, no matter who they are playing.

Thank you Bull-by -Marriage...

WWW...I've been to USC the stadium is "off campus" the same way MOSI is "off campus" at USF its right there.

Penn State's Beaver Stadium is located on the east side of campus, been there a few times. Doak Campbell is on campus, FSU's basketball arena isn't.

And Miami cannot build a stadium on campus, it has tried before, but they would have to pay for the land (something legal) and oit would cost them double what a normal campus would cost.

BullGrad, you do make very valid points except for the environment...Southern Miss is a solid team at best, yet their stadium is considered a very hard place to play, it intimate, it draws near sellouts to almost every game (about the same announced attendance as our venue) yet teams always have trouble playing there.

BYU has been down near aweful, yet they are considered a hard place to play. Kentucky and annual doormat...64,000 fans, when the game is close, they consider it is a tough place to play.

East Carolina, New Mexico, etc. all have venues where the team is aweful, but the crowds and the venues make the games close.

Winning streaks certainly help make a place a "tough place to play," but the environment is the main ingredient. Yes the place was very exiciting for Louisville, but it wasn't electric to the point of Louisville saying "the crowd had a definite effect on our team" or the "venue is a tough place to play." I haven't heard that said once about our team...

PS - Florida Field in Gaineville has been considered one of the toughest places to play since the 1960s. Bear Bryant once said that the only game he hated going to was in Gainesville because the crowd beared down on him. They have sold out every game since 1978 (in 1979 they finished 0-10-1) Thats not the type environment that RJS is going to create on this team...(the Florida info is via an SEC history website)

FYI, Minnesota is close to approving an on campus 60,000 seat stadium opening in 2008, because they were not making any money playing in the Metrodome...

BullGrad, please don't call me shortsighted. You're the one wanting to upgrade facilities on Non-Revenue sports. In order for non revenue sports to be paid at a high level you must get money from someone other than boosters and students. Football and Men's Basketball are our only Revenue sports on campus, football being the cash cow.

The current lease at RJS is nice, we don't have to pay an arm and a leg, but we also do not get anything. In order for our other sports to succeed we must succeed at making money in one of our revenue sports, basketball isn't going to be that sport (doesn't make NEAR what a good football program does).

All I am saying is that this school needs to look at the possibility of building an on campus stadium (similar  to Cardinal Stadium cost 68 MIl, with chairbacks...expandable up to 80,000) 100-120 mil will give us a similar stadium, in a much nicer condition. The reasons for this have been exhausted, but I believe there are more positives than negatives.

Sure our non revenue facilities might be a little underclassed, but they don't make any money! You gotta invest in the winner 1st then move down the line.

The Sun Dome is almost an exact replica of the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, except, we have chairbacks in the lower areas (thats right their biggest alumni sit on bleachers.) When the school was going to remove the lower level bleachers in favor of the chairbacks 2 years ago many of them wouldn't have it, why? because it would take away from the environment. Then the school suggested a new basketball venue (which would have to be off campus), the biggest boosters scoffed again, why because the environment was great.

A venue does not have to be state of the art with all the jazz (except for a jumbotorn, many college stadiums these days have jumbotrons and that is always nice to have, the 1st which was added to Penn State in 1997). However, you want chairbacks, Louisville had them for 68 Mil.

RJS does NOT have the environment that makes college football what it is, its a GREAT NFL stadium which a college team uses 5-6 saturdays a year. Wake me when someone mentions they are scared to go into the cavernous RJS to play the Bulls. Somehow, there just isn't that feeling there...

Triple. there is a MAJOR difference between us and Miami. Show me a great program with an off campus stadim (like ours, not like USC) other than Miami and UCLA and I'll give you props.

This is the part that I honestly don't understand, Joe. In what ways will an OCS tremendously help the football program?

Recruits like it. Trust me...

Heh, costs aren't that easy and most of us know that...

However, 200M is a lil much for a college football stadium, this isn't the NFL.

100-120 should cover a very nice stadium. On a 30 year mortgage, thats 4 Mil a year, plus interest...plus upkeep...well you know what I'm getting at.

I am not expecting an oncampus stadium anytime soon, I am simply stating that we should start planning for one. It will help this program tremenously!

USC does not have an "on campus" stadium, instead its located right across the street from the campus on city owned land. Pitt, however, has changed drastically since moving off campus, unless its a really big game the crowd is usually no more than 30,000 and not very into it (my grandfather went there, been to games many a times). Miami as we have expierenced is miles from campus, and unless they are in a big game is not a drastic environment. UCLA has trouble filling games these days and has talked about building their own stadium (it would be off campus, but they would own it).

I'm talking environment and future success. It has been said that "playing in an NFL stadium is major plus for recruits." Thats garbage, the team constantly has to move their equipment in order to occupy locker rooms. The only days they are allowed to use anything at RJS are the days we get to play there. Its not the ideal situation for a college football program to grow.

Trust me I know fiscally we cannot pay for it, and boosters aren't always the ones to pay for these upgrades,usually it comes from a combo of bowl money (we do get a share of BCS money), TV contracts (we get a share of), and fundraising.

Congrats, although i didnt see the game, you guys seemed to run the ball very well? would you say your o-line has improved or was it their Dline being bad?

I would say no, the local news said that Leak has in injury in his throwing shoulder that occured at FSU last fall. He reaggrevated it against Alabama. I cannot see him being benched.

You must remember that if USF, WV, and Louisville tie at 6-1 in league play, the BCS takes the higher ranked Big East team. Lets just not go throwing oursleves in the ring yet until we take care of business on the field.

I went to many basketball games last season. Once again, the "commuter school" aspect comes into play. Not only that, our team wasn't very good...

I think they brought whoever they had at Utah.

I'm gonna have to say that student attendance has been good, but not great. We have 5,300 for Louisville (not the 10k people were saying). The Gat receipts for Louisville were around 29k. A school that has over 30,000 students should do better. FSU and Florida bring 20,000 + students a game. Granted they are more established, but an on campus stadium will get more to the game.

Further, most major schools do not have set parking lots for parking. You simply buy an on campus pass (most big boosters/alumni get em) or you find a place to set up on campus. Look at that Penn State game last night...we'll NEVER have that at RJS...

Many of you guys have obviously NEVER attended USF...As a current student I can say our campus life sucks, most people in my dorm head home on the weekends. And if they stay most don't care about Bulls football.

An on campus stadiums would change this by giving students a reason to stick around. No Bleachers?!!? Most club sections have them..butm Gimmie one college in America thats on Campus stadium features exclusive plush chairbacks? You can rent the chair additions to the bleachers if it bugs you that bad.

Just an opinion of a current USF student.