widerberg

2 minutes ago, Brad said:

The life raft began to leak moments before we picked up additional dead weight...

We are gonna have killer traps and delts from all the bailing to keep this thing afloat.

12 minutes ago, BULL2001 said:

 Let's have fun with the bigger chick but, let's ditch her when the hot one comes along.

I mean, she's the only one that likes us at the moment. Might as well have some fun and enjoy it.

Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome or depression, but after staring at the East/West breakdown of AAC 2.0, I like this conference. I mean, it's not that my not liking it will change anything. But, seriously, I think I legitimately like this thing. I just want to see us win. There are some familiar faces there, some teams we definitely should (please god!) handle with ease, and a pretty decent path to some divisional and conference titles, bowl games, maybe a NY6 game, etc. And we still have room to work some OOC magic. 

13 hours ago, Rex Havoc said:

Why did we not try and get Coastal Carolina and App State along with the 6 others? Watching their game now, and both look pretty good. Plus Boone is a cool little town 

Yeah, I don't understand this, either. We'll be at 14, but chances are strong we'll get poached again in a few years (hopefully with USF going but maybe not). Why not just go two more to 16 now before someone else scoops them up? Then again, our ESPN money probably wouldn't increase and we'd then have to split money even more.

13 hours ago, NewEnglandBull said:

USF not even on the radar…

Q: Your headquarters are here in North Texas, and SMU is right here in Dallas. Is SMU ringing your phone, wanting in on the Big 12 party?

A: That’s a good question. I’ve had a lot of conversations with President [Gerald] Turner and with [athletic director] Rick Hart. I’ve known them both for a long time. I have great respect for them. But we went after the best athletes we could find, and it was the four we got. They were the ones that bring the highest top-end and the most value. But I have great respect for SMU.

Other schools I respect that we heard from include Memphis—they were very interested. Boise State raised their hand. Some others in the West wanted in. And just because we didn’t take them now, that doesn’t mean we are no longer considering growth. It isn’t just about taking in new members just to have more pie. There’s going to have to be good strategic reasons for getting larger.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby Opens Up About the UT-OU Departure, and More - D Magazine

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What's next for the Big 12 Conference? The College Football...

 

 

Don't worry about it. Someone in another thread (or this one?) said we were going to the Pac-12. LOL.

14 minutes ago, Peatearpan said:

Reports are Southern Miss and Marshall to Sun Belt. Does the MAC snag two?

ESPN has the rights to AAC, MAC, and Sun Belt.

Yikes, RIP C-USA

27 minutes ago, Brad said:

Yeah, also, I would submit that if it happened in year 5 of the coach it would have less impact.  Many of those players would know how to workout themselves.  But in Year one when there is so much change?  Not good timing at all. 

I could see that. And with the team where it was/is after CCS, injuries, iffy assistant hires, etc., etc., it's kind of a smorgasbord of bad. Covid and limited contact certainly didn't help.

2 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

And even if we do not move anywhere or have great success I am still prepared to enjoy USF football Saturdays. This is not the friggin NFL…it’s college football and the players on this team are students who attend the same university that I graduated from and that does deserves respect. So I’ll be in front of my tv or at a few away games supporting them to the fullest. 

Yeah, it'll be nice to just enjoy USF football again. I'd like to enjoy us winning, if I had a choice. But, I think we all need to find whatever joy is left in cheering for USF football and focus on that. Those of us that are alums rather than just fans should be proud that our school has a team on the field. 

15 hours ago, NewEnglandBull said:

 In fact, I I am kind of relieved that it is all over. 

To be honest, I feel the same way. I'm sure realignment isn't over forever, but realignment that we would care about feels like it's over for a few years, so now's the time to drop the shoulder and push through the conference. If we do well in AAC 2.0 and if we build an OCS, then chances are good we'll move somewhere in a few years.

12 hours ago, Bulls On Parade said:

How do you sell that to recruits and transfers and fans. 

I think you've gotta tell recruits/transfers "we suck right now, but with you here starting, I think we'll start winning." Some kids want to start right away and will see an opportunity. Some kinds want to make a difference.

I mean, 1-11, 2-10, 3-9, do those numbers really make a difference? South of a winning record, it all kinda looks the same. But, yeah, 1-11 is pretty ugly.

In terms of fans, I think it'll take a few years of 8 or 9 win seasons and a ton of positive media coverage before casuals start showing up again in big(ger) numbers. That sounds totally unrealistic, but look at our attendance numbers. It's depressing.

12 hours ago, Cali_Bull said:

After last season's Covid impacts

No disrespect at all, and this is just in general because I see a lot of people posting about Covid, but . . . didn't Covid impact everyone, including everyone who beat us? I'm not sure that we can really blame Covid for sucking. Every negative impact to us was also felt by every other NCAA and NAIA school. I can't see that it impacted us more than other schools, especially since a ton of other states were locked down way more than Florida was.

Wow, that is rough. With little depth to begin with, that hurts.

8 minutes ago, hm101 said:

Mike Kelly was on the expansion committee so USF can't say oh it was out of our hands. 

He has probably spent more time in the past several weeks courting Charlotte than engaging a frustrated USF fan base. It's wild. 

To be fair, there's not much he can do for the fan base at the moment. OCS announcement would make me really happy, but I'm sure would piss off part of the fanbase. The conference thing just is what it is for a while. Hopefully, he's selling his soul to the devil behind the scenes to get us into a better conference in a few years.

32 minutes ago, bullsfan1983 said:

Best guess from here is that Memphis and Boise get the call up and Navy peaces out in favor of independence and we end up at 12 teams. 

Um, that doesn't involve us, so I reject that.  

8 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

We are in competition with SMU for the call up.

I hope so.

6 minutes ago, MSBulls said:

Agreed. Between Memphis, SMU and USF right? Anyone else we think would be involved? 

Man, I hope so. And I don't even think that B12 is all that great looking. Better than the AAC, or sure. Mostly, I just want to get back into the same conference as UCF. Not that I have any love for them, just don't want to be one rung below them.

Get ready for that USF v FAU rivalry.

Seriously, though, it sounds like the TV money will stay the same, so that's kind of a huge victory. It could have been a lot worse. I don't think recruiting will change much, because it hasn't been great lately to begin with. And, maybe we can actually win our division fairly often now and, maybe just maybe, win the conference once? Maybe twice. 

Trying to look through the flames to see some good on the other side, maybe this will help our win/loss record in the short- to mid-term, give us a chance to build the OCS, and put us in a better footing to leave for the B12 or whatever?

There really were no schools that were going to dramatically increase the AAC profile.

My favorite gripe from back then, and a bit earlier, was CJL plateauing. Man, I'd love to be at a 8 or 9 win per year plateau right now.

I dunno. At this point, I'd roll the dice on him. He won a National Championship. Granted, that's at LSU with LSU recruits. But, still. He's got an overall winning record as a coach and has won four bowls to losing one. 

8 minutes ago, USFBULL_08 said:

Was never in band. Played club hockey, but that's about it. Rember when they had a bar underneath the Marshall center.

So fake news.

I remember when the Marshall Center was called the UC. I still call it that and annoy my kids. 

There's always Temple, I guess. Maybe we can beat 1 more team this year?

We had this game. So frustrating.

They move the ball and we can't/won't stop it.

Ugh

We're good at punt returns, if nothing else. Today, at least.

After 2 weeks, I was hoping for more, to be honest. It's not over yet, but still.