widerberg

They'll have Alexa or Google Assistant doing color next.

Can't make it look too easy, I guess.

And ugly win is still a win. So, let's do this! Go Bulls.

So I haven't missed anything. LOL.

Got stuck running errands today. What did I miss?

From the conference perspective, I imagine they're solely/mostly looking at what teams they can add to preserve our TV money as much as possible and what teams may give the conference the best chance to survive the next round of expansion poaching.

This is me rationalizing a huge amount. But, unless we're competing annually with SEC teams for a national title, does it really matter what conference we're in? I mean, yes, but ignore that for now. I'm switching/lowering my standards to just hoping we can play energetic, fun football, have winning seasons most years, go bowling again most years, and occasionally win the conference title of whatever conference we're in. Oh, and get an OCS. From a fan's point of view, understanding that we're not a land grant school with a hundred plus years of football history, I don't know that we can really hope for more than that. We will never be UF, FSU, or Miami. In a hundred years, no matter what happens, we still won't be UF, FSU, or Miami. Our clock started in 1997 and they've all had decades of history before then. We're never going to be in that club, even if we luck out one day and get into one of their conferences. At least we're not a commuter school anymore. Go Bulls!

It could be a lot worse. P6 is kinda funny, but we're tallest midget (or tied with the MWC) among the unwashed masses.

Yeah, I would take UAB and Rice. Rice, in particular, is an old program, they've got a positive Bowl record, they've got a bunch of conference titles, although that was years and years and years ago, and we get the Houston TV market back. I think you mentioned their academics, too, a while back.

I mean if nobody else wants to come to the AAC, what are you gonna do? It's depressing, but it is what it is. I just hope we're able to win this thing a few times.

I think trying to force it is what makes it feel so weird. Also, bringing in all the non-revenue sports seems weird, too. I could see a trophy or whatever for whoever wins the annual football game. But, that really should be it. Maaaybe MBB, at a stretch, but I'd vote no even for that. This had always been about who won the football game, at least in my mind.

If we're coming clean, I'll admit that I support the rivalry, too. I don't like UCF, which works out nicely. We're 100 miles away from each other. We're both state public schools. If they're not our rival, I don't know who would be.

That's pretty cringey, to be honest. The wall/points thing was kinda iffy, too. But, now a championship belt? We (USF) should really try to act like we've been here before. I get the desire for traditions, but they should develop organically. And also not be 20 random weird things in rapidfire succession. It just feels desperate.

I was literally about to type the same thing. Before his dramatic "exit" (was he ever "in", in order to exit?) I had to look him up. I'd never heard of him before. Still don't really know who he is.

Well, I didn't say no P4/P5. And I get that some of these games are scheduled out 10 years, like ND in 2031. But, we gotta start winning consistently and that won't be helped by playing Alabama. And, yes, I'm definitely for playing Alabama. Just maybe not so many Alabamas. If we go 0-4, people say we suck. If we go 4-0 against FCS/Sun Belt/CUSA teams, people say our SoS sucks and therefore we also suck. I guess ultimately you can't win. But, 4-0 looks and feels better on paper and it's easier to cheer for 4-0 and maybe build some momentum.

I like the idea of focusing on getting bowl eligible every year. If we schedule a bunch of P4/P5, I agree, for the next couple of years we're probably looking at a bunch of losses. Any publicity is good publicity, I guess, but I'd rather fight in our own current weight class and maybe start collecting hardware again. Then work in some better teams once we're back on our feet and getting good.

The constant "soon" answer to OCS update questions is getting annoying. Why soon? Why not be a little bit more transparent about what soon actually is (1 week, 1 month, 1 year?). And if we're waiting on something in order to make an updated statement, why not say that? You don't have to go into specifics, but literally any statement is better than none 6 weeks into this. Everyone is making up their own narrative about what's happening given that there's nothing coming from USF.

It would have been nice for them to timetable this thing out a little more clearly at, or shortly after, the groundbreaking. If not specific date-based milestones, then at least some sort of general timeframe to set expectations. Like I'd mentioned, I'd read somewhere that actual construction will start toward the end of the season so it doesn't impact the team, but I can't remember who that info came from or if it was official.

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that they're waiting until closer to the end of the season to start construction because they don't want to impede the team practicing on the current fields.

And if we use a credit card to book the travel, we'll be really good to go. Between credit card points and traveler miles, we got this!

I also wanted to mention that USF to the Pac-12 was really jumping the shark. So, who knows if any of that was anything more than fantasy. But, I'll take any glimmer of hope on an OCS now since our conference situation is so depressing.

If any of that is true, I'm happy. But, yeah, I don't see why Will Weatherford would care, either. It's not like an OCS would really help a future gubernatorial run or provide him any direct benefit (unless a brother-in-law is bidding on the contract or something). Nobody outside of Tampa cares if we have an OCS (except conferences, I guess). If he does care, and can push this through, then he's my hero.

I had to look it up on Wikipedia, because I couldn't remember how the name came about. Weirdly, it's UCF that said, "yeah, don't bring the trophy, we really don't want to do this."

Maybe the B12 is waiting for our official OCS announcement before they offer? Seems sketchy, but I'll take it if that's the case. Slight glimmer of hope, maybe.

I'd be happy with that. On the other hand, would that leave us open if one or more of the P5s decide to go to 16 or more? At that point, there'd be a giant musical chairs game kicking off and there would be room in some conferences that look a lot better than the AAC. Then again, I suppose that's a risk even if we went bigger first. Whatever's gonna happen, I wish it would happen sooner than later so I can grieve, come to terms, and go on with my life. (Or celebrate, I guess that's a possibility, too, but . . .)